What gives pleasure here are generally those works convincingly performed by the forces their creators originally intended. There are muscular, imaginative and witty solo pieces by Rózsa and Toch. Even better is Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s cello-piano variation set I nottambuli, inspired by nocturnal wanderings in Florence.

Émigré composers who wound up in Hollywood (or at least in the neighbourhood) are the agents that bind this excellently performed, programmed and engineered cello recital...‘Saget mir, auf welchem Pfade’ from Schoenberg’s The Book of the Hanging Gardens loses nothing in translation from text-driven soprano to cello instrumental. Indeed, Smith ought to take on the entire song-cycle!