Extraordinary to think that such an appealing work as Stanford’s 1880 Cello Concerto should have been allowed to languish neglected for so long. Only the slow movement was performed in the composer’s lifetime; indeed, not until Lyrita recorded it in the early 1990s with Alexander Baillie as soloist was the piece performed in its entirety. Turning to this welcome newcomer, we find that Gemma Rosefield is every bit Baillie’s equal. She plays with disarming character and freshness; her technique, too, is enviably sure and tone beguilingly rounded. I also think that her cadenza – a good deal less protracted than Baillie’s – works better in the context of a such a neatly constructed work. Perhaps there’s a touch more personality about the RPO’s contribution under Nicholas Braithwaite than the BBC Scottish SO’s for Andrew Manze, as well as an extra skip and twinkle about the finale. Otherwise, we’re talking swings and roundabouts: aficionados will naturally want to possess both versions.

The concerto is pre-dated here by the Rondo in F major from 1869, a wholly engaging, Schumannesque essay written for Wilhelm Elsner, a German-born tutor at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin (Stanford’s birthplace), and a conspicuously precocious achievement for a 16-year-old. The Irish Rhapsody No 3 is a much later offering from 1913, one of two concertante specimens in Stanford’s series of seven, its heartfelt and songful first section leading to a boisterous jig. Like Raphael Wallfisch and Vernon Handley before them, Rosefield and Manze do the piece proud. They also bring a comparable sensitivity and copious flair to the Ballata and Ballabile, a typically resourceful and charming diptych composed in 1918 for Beatrice Harrison. Admirable sound and truthful balance; another Hyperion winner!