Moscow Soloists (Onyx)

The vast set of miniature variations – Prokofiev's 20 Visions fugitives op.22 – especially receives playing of the highest refinement.

With all those tiny sections – some lasting under 30 seconds – the composition can seem sporadic, yet not here under the leadership of Yuri Bashmet. The precise, sparse yet unusually warm textures of the string band are shaped and coloured, with individual movements relaxing into more expanded musical nuggets.

The Lentamente introduces a distant, shivering tone; the Andante that follows finds a contrast of timbre – here it is grainier, earthier and more arrogantly virtuosic. Such juxtapositions serve to provide great musical excitement throughout. Bashmet finds irony in the titling of movement VI con eleganza – the chromatics and (here) lurching accompaniments seem anything but stately – while the Commodo is quite breathtakingly sustained in its sighing lament.

What serves to distinguish this performance, however, is the inclusion of five new transcriptions. Rudolf Barshai made his 15 arrangements from the original version for piano in 1962, and violist Roman Balashov has completed the set for this recording. There is no perceptible incongruity of styles, and the new transcriptions are written with immense intelligence and taste. VII (the Pittoresco) boasts the most delicate scoring, while the breathless motifs of XVII (Poetico, andantino) are evocative and magical. Only a slight insecurity of pitching on the work's final diminuendo threatens to mar the performance.

Stravinsky's two offerings – Apollo and the Concerto in D for Strings – are equally persuasive. The latter is a brief work, but one incorporating a little too much angularity of line and dangerous harmony for the comfort of most string bands. Here, the Arioso in particular is stunning – the steamy bass notes, sultry tone of the higher strings and languorous rhythms create an unusual air of Mediterranean warmth – while the crags and choppy beats of the outer movements find pinpoint security and conversational intimacy between parts.

Apollo, meanwhile, is given a performance of the highest clarity. A certain chilly introspection occasionally lurks too close to the surface – as it can do with this defining work of Neo-classicism – but great humour is found throughout, and the Apothéose ends the performance with ample helpings of both lustrous glitter and overwhelming ecstasy. Forget the odd technical slip: the overall recording remains a pleasure from start to finish.

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