Charlie Siem’s new CD takes its title from a song composed by Herbert Spencer (1877-1944), a name that had me scurrying to the web for clarification. As it happens he is not the arranger Herbert J Spencer, a longtime associate of John Williams in Hollywood, but a songwriter who came to the attention of Fritz Kreisler; the violinist arranged this song as an encore, as he did a number of these tracks which were much favoured for this purpose.

Siem’s programme flows effortlessly, concluding with his own likeable composition, Canopy, in which he also takes on the role of conductor. En route we have a couple of substantial items, with a Carmen Fantasy by Jeno˝ Hubay and Tchaikovsky’s Sérénade mélancolique. The Hubay work was new to me: it is an unadulterated delight and brings out the best in this soloist, who tosses off every violinistic trick in the book with aplomb. He also lovingly conveys the tender mood of Micaëla’s aria in this extended arrangement of her tune. Siem is less successful in the Tchaikovsky Serenade: the climax of the piece sounds uncomfortable to the ear and he is not helped by the pedestrian accompaniment of the conductor Paul Goodwin. It maybe unfair on one so young to invoke in this context a violinist of an earlier generation but Grumiaux’s recording with Edo de Waart (Eloquence, 11/71) transports you to another plane, where the music is alive with the soloist’s innate sense of fantasy.