Perhaps it’s the mountain air. Or maybe the spectacular scenery. Or the haute cuisine. Or the chance to catch up with like-minded friends. Whatever the reason, Verbier attracts great artists and inspires them to new heights, helped by the canny casting of festival founder and artistic director Martin Engstroem.

During the 17 days of the 2007 festival, for the first time all the concerts in the two main venues were filmed, allowing 29 of them to be broadcast over the internet. This disc is a selection of highlights from nine of those. Few pianophiles will pass over the opportunity to see and hear Martha Argerich live, and while she is predictably scintillating in one of her favourite festival pieces (Lutoslawski’s Paganini Variations partnered, on this occasion, by Gabriela Montero) she is absolutely astounding in the finale of Bartók’s Sonata for Violin and Piano No 1 with a demonically driven Renaud Capuçon. Her soulmate, Nelson Freire, offers a tender, one might say avuncular, view of Debussy’s Children’s Corner, a contrast to the glacial Hélène Grimaud in Schumann and Ravel, and Evgeny Kissin’s Liebesträume No 3 where love is clearly a cross to be borne (though his Bizet-Horowitz Variations justifiably raise the roof). Rounding off proceedings is a fired-up Joshua Bell in the finale of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto.

Visually, the camerawork is efficient and nothing more. There is no scene-setting or sense of occasion. The start of each highlight is edited to within a crotchet of the upbeat and applause is abruptly curtailed after each item.