This recording really is a joy from start to finish...the Takács Quartet are alive to every inflection in Ravel’s meticulously marked score, so that we live the journeys of each movement with them...Above all, Stephen Hough’s is an unmistakably individual and convincing voice.

These are both powerful, brilliantly imagined interpretations, painted in bold, rich colours and shaped with flashing virtuosity. Forget any thought of the Ravel as a pastel-tinted watercolour; this is a symphonic reading.

The Hough is a lovely work, full of wit and panache, that could hardly have more committed, persuasive advocates...Every nuance and technical demand [in the Dutilleux] is tossed off with aplomb and seeming ease, and yet none of it ever comes across as virtuosity for its own sake; they illuminate and elucidate the musical sense and meaning behind every moment.

In the Takács’ hands, Ainsi la Nuit skips weightlessly from gauzy otherworldliness to coiled-spring punchiness to gossamer delicacy. The precision and rhythmic tautness that allow these quicksilver changes also inform every note of their playing of the Ravel; their recording of this work has been long-awaited and their vivid, assertive performance doesn’t disappoint.

Harking back to the pungent and insouciant spirit associated with the composing group Les Six, Hough’s creation is an immediate winner, and a perfect companion for the more serious thoughts of the genuine French music on display. This is a magical album.