The young Dutch violinist Niek Baar’s name was a new one to me when this debut album landed on my desk. His teachers include Philippe Graffin and Peter Brunt (Royal Conservatory in The Hague) and Stephan Picard (Berlin’s ‘Hanns Eisler’ University of Music).

With ‘Obsession’, Baar’s idea has been to return ‘to the pieces that inspired him to become a violinist’, so it is perhaps inevitable that the resultant programme of short works arranged for string orchestra accompaniment isn’t necessarily going to win plaudits for its adventurousness: solidly core repertoire, crowd-pleaser territory. Yet the performances themselves are attractive and imbued with a clear sense of personal approach, the overall flavour of which is polished romance. Take his Tzigane, taken at a sultrily relaxed tempo, which never sacrifices beauty and finesse at the gypsy altar – a quality further accentuated by the soft, lucid elegance coming from the Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra in its concertmaster Michael Waterman’s arrangement for strings and harp.

Baar’s playing by no means prioritises beauty over interest, though. On the contrary, I’ve found myself appreciating the range of nuance and shading to his phrasing. He serves up one of the most enjoyable readings of Dvořák’s Romance I’ve yet heard on disc, bringing a real sense of progression and storytelling to music that in the wrong hands (and apologies to all fans of this softly lilting, early-career work) can sound a tad insipid and repetitive. The Romance is also the perfect foil for Baar’s 1729 Bergonzi’s strikingly sweet and slender upper registers.

Add a real sense of chamber collaboration with the Concertgebouw CO (showcased especially in the Tchaikovsky ‘Méditation’ when Waterman rises up to duet with Baar), throw in warmly natural engineering that does a brilliant job of displaying the violin’s character, and while I wouldn’t describe this as a striking debut, it’s certainly very charming.