As concepts for string recitals go, scordatura – the abnormal tuning of a string instrument in order to obtain special chordal effects and changes of tonal quality – is one ripe with potential. On paper, this scordatura-themed offering from Valeria Zorina, recorded on three differently tuned metal-strung violins over the course of five days, looks appetisingly individual with its even split between core repertoire favourites and premiere recordings or lesser-spotted works.

The audio itself, though, turns out to be less satisfying. Ysaÿe’s Poème élégiaque, for which the violin’s (lowest) G string is tuned down to F for a darker timbre, is ably accompanied by Evgeny Sinaiski, and Zorina herself opens with an initially promising huskily velvet tone. Soon, though, it’s the slightly laboured feel to her portamentos that you most notice. Also the way that at climactic points her sound remains unchanged and unreleased. Onwards, and because Zorina’s metal G string isn’t pliant enough to be stretched all the way up to the C Biber stipulates for his Rosary Sonata No 9, ‘The Carrying of the Cross’, she instead uses a three-quarter-size viola string – an ingenious piece of problem-solving, to be sure, but if you skip to the Double in particular, this string shouts its presence in arguably not the most attractive way. Then, as for the last core repertoire number, Saint-Saëns’s Danse macabre, this isn’t the most twinkle-toed or colouristically varied reading I’ve heard.

So, in the context of the above yardsticks, it’s tricky to evaluate properly the pair of premieres written for Zorina respectively in 2017 and 2018: Louis Franz Aguirre’s Four Nocturnes with Masks and Giacomo Platini’s Four Souvenirs for violin and piano. What I can say, though, is that Aguirre’s quartet of haiku-length pieces explores various tones and sonorities via techniques such as flautando, and I can imagine the impression of stillness and the variety of colour they could produce. Likewise, Platini’s four miniatures, focusing on the violin’s upper registers, have an evocative, dreamlike quality about them.

Add booklet notes that unhelpfully wax lyrical over what a daring and difficult programme this is, and engineering that occasionally has the violin and piano fighting each other in the balance, and sadly this isn’t one I’ll be pursuing a longer relationship with once this review is filed.