The idea of the French Carpe Diem Ensemble is to take symphonic music to places that would not otherwise be able to enjoy it. Theirs is by no means a unique initiative, of course. Pocket-size opera companies have been doing that sort of thing for ages, and there are plenty of precedents as regards instrumental repertoire, too. But there cannot be all that many groups that achieve comparable finesse in their performances.

That is the positive side of the story. Considerations of expediency apart, it is hard to see why anyone would volunteer for this kind of ersatz listening. With Mussorgsky’s Pictures it is not even as though Jean-Pierre Arnaud has taken the trouble to go back to proper sources. “The Old Castle”, “The Ox-cart” and “Samuel Goldenburg and Schmüyle” are all giveaways for the fact that he is working from Rimsky-Korsakov’s misread version of the text, and in “Gnomus” the string glissandos early on and the added side drum for the final flourish show that he is reducing Ravel’s orchestration as much as he is orchestrating the original Mussorgsky. That said, one can hardly begrudge him giving the main tune in “The Old Castle” to his own instrument, the cor anglais; and “The Battle of the Unhatched Chicks” is deftly reimagined.

Pictures completists who feel compelled to buy the disc will also find rather pointless versions of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Sadko tone-poem, “Dance of the Tumblers” and Mussorgsky’s A Night on the Bare Mountain. Those help to confine the issue firmly to Curiosity Corner.