Rachel Kolly d’Alba’s playing immediately grabs our attention. Passionate commitment to the music, rich tone and constantly varied expression combine to leave a powerful, memorable impression. I had mixed feelings about her previous recording, of the Ysaÿe Solo Sonatas (9/10), finding a shortage of simple, tranquil, quiet playing, but here she demonstrates, with her first, unaccompanied entry in the Chausson, that she can do just that, and to beautiful effect. Generally, while stressing the dramatic and colourful side of each work, her interpretations are well balanced and persuasive, too.

In the Saint-Saëns she’s helped by an excellent, sympathetic accompaniment supervised by Kantorow (a distinguished exponent of the solo part himself): the dramatic recitative at the start of the finale compels attention and the lyrical episodes in the outer movements are warm and romantic. The Chausson and Saint-Saëns also appear together on a recent CD by Tedi Papavrami (Aeon, 10/10). His lighter, more mercurial style emphasises a different aspect of the Concerto – its Andante, more delicate and flowing, is to be preferred, I think, to d’Alba’s more intense account – and, in the Poème, too, Papavrami, though not quite matching d’Alba’s tonal range, shows a stronger grasp of the overall structure.

I particularly enjoyed the two short Ysaÿe pieces, in which d’Alba adopts a parlando style that’s most affecting. Tzigane is unusually vivid and colourful, to the point of grotesqueness in one or two places. As a whole, it’s not as well integrated a performance as Ibragimova and Tiberghien’s (reviewed on page 95) but it’s still very exciting.