No quarrels with these performances, which are lively and expert enough even if the strings are a little wanting in warmth and bloom. All the same, they are no match for the rivals listed above, which have the advantage of longer playing time and more substantial couplings. The information on the back of the jewel-box is misleading in that it gives the total time as 66'48'' when it is in fact 48'49''! The Jordan coupling of the Petite symphonie concertante and the Concerto comes with the Sechs Monologe aus ''Jedermann'', while Ansermet's pioneering 1952 account of the Petite symphonie has the Etudes for strings and a very acceptable performance of the Concerto. However, no rival version of the Concerto seriously challenges the Chamber Orchestra of Europe under Thierry Fischer on DG, an indispensable disc for all who love this exhilarating and haunting piece. I can't imagine it being superseded. The newcomer is neat and well played, but does not achieve the level of inspiration and poetic feeling that Fischer's players command. Nor does the acoustic or the engineering show them in so flattering a light. On Erato Armin Jordan and the Suisse Romande have the benefit of a warmer acoustic with more air round the individual instruments.
The seven-minute Ballade for flute, originally composed for the 1939 Geneva International Competition and subsequently scored by Ansermet, is heard here in Martin's own transcription for strings and piano, and is sensitively played. Alas, the better is the enemy of the good and although this is recommendable, it does not displace Susan Milan's account.'