A product of the Royal Academy of Music, pupil of Nobuko Imai and BBC New Generation Artist, London-born Timothy Ridout won the 2019 Thierry Scherz Award at the Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad, an accolade that resulted in this classy (and finely engineered) anthology for Claves, in which he teams up with the admirable Lausanne Chamber Orchestra under Jamie Phillips.

Proceedings launch with the endearing Suite from 1934 that Vaughan Williams designed for the legendary viola virtuoso Lionel Tertis – a work that, on disc at least, finally seems to have come into its own. If this marvellously stylish newcomer leaves a marginally more restrained impression than, say, Lawrence Power with Martyn Brabbins and the BBC NOW (Hyperion, 12/11), it possesses absolutely no want of characterful profile, sensitivity or interpretative nous. Certainly, in the radiant ‘Musette’ and contemplative outer portions of the ‘Ballade’, the great Romanza slow movement of the Fifth Symphony has seldom sounded closer – and how affectionately these performers convey the coquettish charm of the ‘Polka mélancolique’ as well as the twinkling mischief of the concluding ‘Galop’. Bouquets, too, for the present account of Britten’s masterly Lachrymae – a powerfully expressive and enviably concentrated display that comes close to rivalling my own preferred versions, namely Lars Anders Tomter with the Norwegian CO under Iona Brown (Virgin, 10/95), Maxim Rysanov with the BBC SO under Edward Gardner (Chandos, 7/11) and Roger Chase with the Nash Ensemble directed by Lionel Friend (Hyperion, 9/96).

The Britten is preceded by a memorably eloquent rendering of Hindemith’s deeply felt and immaculately crafted Trauermusik (1936), which the composer wrote in a matter of hours following the news of King George V’s death as a replacement item for his scheduled performance of Der Schwanendreher with Boult and the BBC SO. That just leaves Martinů’s captivatingly fresh and inventive Rhapsody Concerto from the spring of 1952 (premiered a year later by dedicatee Jascha Veissi, partnered by the Cleveland Orchestra with George Szell on the podium), which is afforded uncommonly articulate, communicative and (above all) songful treatment (in the Molto adagio second movement, the return of the opening material at 4'28" and later on at 8'59" distils a tingling hush and intimacy).

Both production and presentation leave nothing to be desired. In other words, if the programme appeals – and it certainly should! – don’t hesitate.