Here are compelling accounts of the solo parts of these works accompanied by routine partners and a recorded balance that improves over successive movements. At first, the brass and especially woodwind are consigned too distantly to the background, while Mr Liss keeps track of his star soloist efficiently without contributing any special detail or insight. Such shortcomings, however, should not distract from Berezovsky on rampant top form as these artists complete the composer's piano-and-orchestra works (Concertos Nos 2 and 3, 4/06).

Only a handful of other recordings convey quite as well as this the same sense of desperate, heroic struggle in the first movement cadenza of the First Concerto (Malcolm Binns on a 1968 World Record Club LP with Alexander Gibson is another) though the sforzando orchestral re-entry as Berezovsky bursts his chains and sprints for freedom is one of many lost moments. The slow movement has some lovely touches (listen to the piano solo beginning at 1'03" and the breath-catching phrasing at 1'38") while Berezovsky's razor-sharp articulation and attack make for a thrilling finale.

The Fourth Concerto, too, is thoroughly convincing though Stephen Hough (Hyperion, A/04) caresses the “Three Blind Mice” theme of the second movement with matchless grace and throughout has the advantage of the lush strings of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. The Paganini Rhapsody has the distinction of being among the fastest and fieriest on disc - Berezovsky takes the last two variations at a staggering pace including a white-hot cadenza. Mirare provide no individual tracks for the Rhapsody but offer a good booklet attached to the cardboard casing in a form that makes one yearn even more for the demise of the plastic jewel-case.