On this showing Sir Charles Mackerras sees Bartók as a composer more expressive than brutal, less sharply contrasted with his friend and colleague, Kodály, than usual, as the inclusion of Dances of Galanta makes clear. He uses his smallish band to achieve a soloistic degree of flexibility in rhythm and phrasing. Not that there is any lack of weight: Bartók’s dynamic contrasts are dramatically underlined.

Dance-like qualities are to the fore in Kodály’s genial and colourful work and in the fast movements of the Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, especially in the jazzy syncopations of the finale. Antal Dorati finds fun, too, but at a slower, less exciting speed.

In the slow-building counterpoint of the first movement Dorati is more rugged than Mackerras, but Mackerras brings greater refinement to the string lines than Charles Dutoit in Montreal (Decca, 3/94 – nla). In the third movement the result is more atmospheric and mysterious than even Dutoit, let alone Dorati, whose performance emerges in the full light of day.

Mackerras brings a similarly easy flexibility to the Divertimento. The warmth of the Molto adagio makes Dutoit seem plain by comparison, and the closing section is yearningly tender. Against the bluffness of Dutoit in the finale Mackerras is full of jollity, with rhythms jauntily lifted, and he is alert to the textural contrasts between the solo strings and the full band.

Some will hanker after a more abrasive approach to Bartók, but Mackerras’s distinctive readings could not be more persuasive, in the context of Linn’s warm and clear recording.