Noriko Ogawa’s reading of the First Concerto reminded me of Malcolm Binns’s old recording with Sir Alexander Gibson. Here, the first movement cadenza, following pages of insouciant athleticism, conveys more vividly than most the image of someone trapped at the bottom of a dark well clawing their way up its side into the sunlight. Moving and exhilarating, Ogawa follows this with an equally successful account of the final (1941) version of the Fourth Concerto.

Her Paganini Rhapsody is made all the more dynamic by BIS’s engineering and balance. There are some delicious moments, like the magical elision between the end of Var 17 and the famous Var 18 which is not played as though it were a hit tune inserted into the score, as sometimes happens, but emerges organically from what has gone before. The treacherous Var 24 is deftly despatched leggiero and staccato. The Malmö players under Owain Arwel Hughes offer acutely observed support throughout, with the important wind and brass solo writing subtly highlighted to gratifying effect. The disc lasts a generous 81’44”.

Boosey & Hawkes are publishing the original 1926 version of the Fourth Concerto later this year with its 114 unfamiliar bars restored (most of them belonging to the final movement). Whether or not you think Rachmaninov made an error in cutting them (personally I prefer to trust the composer’s judgement), Alain Lefèvre and Kent Nagano offer a crisply executed and superb recording – not the first, as the booklet claims – with razor-sharp responses to Rachmaninov’s complex rhythms and rapid changes of metre.

The Concerto is followed by Scriabin’s Prometheus: The Poem of Fire with its concertante piano part, optional choir and clavier à lumières (or chromola), opening with the so-called ‘mystic (or Prometheus) chord’ and ending on an F sharp major triad, the only consonant sonority in the entire work. Rachmaninov was present at the first rehearsal (1910) and is said to have remarked to Scriabin: ‘I am puzzled. I am aware that this is something totally remarkable, yet I cannot explain why.’ Your reviewer concurs. Every member of the orchestra and chorus is named in the booklet but the disc is on the short side (52’32”).