This two-disc package (including short, PC-compatible promotional films) offers a splendid showcase for two outstanding young Czech artists. Jirí Bárta is well-represented in the catalogue, but this is Martin Kasík’s début both with the Czech Philharmonic and on Supraphon.

They are high-powered performances, technically brilliant and freely expressive. Bárta purifies his distinctive, almost nasal, tone for the great second theme of the opening movement, and for the rapt restatement of that theme in the development section. Though the result is other-worldly, his reading is not as poignant as Jacqueline du Pré’s in her Prom performance. Both Du Pré and Mstislav Rostropovich are even more expressive than Bárta but they keep a steadier pulse. In the bravura writing he is strong, fiery and impulsive, as is Kasík in the Piano Concerto.

Kasik makes the often chunky piano writing sound natural: I suspect he might have studied the classic Sviatoslav Richter recording. It says much that he comes close to matching that supreme model, with wonderfully clean articulation, though the close balance does not help him.

Both performances are enhanced by the distinctive timbres of the Czech Philharmonic – fruity horns, warm oboe, and refined strings. Highly recommended.