Let’s start in the middle: Matthew Hindson’s piece is fun, kicking off with a lusty ‘one, a-two, a-one-two-three-four!’ which leads into an engaging first movement. The vibraphone is prominent in the second movement, the music there fairly haunting and romantic, and the finale is high-spirited, a sort of Reich-style ‘road-runner’. It certainly shows this band at its best, and the recording is well focused.

Ravel’s adaptation of his Boléro for two pianos and percussion sounds purely functional but it also serves, in a limited way, to clarify the music’s harmonic progress, especially the clearly punctuated accompaniment, while the percussive side-commentary gradually gains in intensity. Worth an airing or two, especially as the Rogés and colleagues offer a crisp, neatly rhythmic performance with a stirring peroration. But ultimately Boléro is its orchestration and this ‘masterpiece without music’ (to paraphrase Ravel’s self-deprecating assessment of the piece) rather fails without it.

The one true masterpiece on the programme is Bartók’s Sonata for two pianos and percussion, but here there are occasional problems with both the recording and the performance. Beam up 3'14" into the first movement and the percussion is too close, while only some of the piano detail is clearly audible. By 3'36" or thereabouts it’s even worse, and rather difficult to make out whether the coordination between the pianists and the percussion is all it should be. A pity, because the slow movement goes well and so, for the most part, does the finale. Well worth a spin for the sake of the Ravel and the Hindson, but if Bartók’s your priority stick with Argerich and Kovacevich, among others.