There’s plenty of meat in Poulenc’s Sinfonietta, not least in the abundance of memorable tunes...The late Bramwell Tovey is alert to their quality, and especially, as often with Poulenc, to their arch shaping so that one needs to tread lightly on their final notes...Above all, Tovey engenders a sense of energy and fun.

Chandos collaborated with Bramwell Tovey for more than a decade and the music-making has his trademark naturalness and good humour. Not the most obvious farewell, perhaps, but in its avoidance of pomp and solemnity none the worse for that.

What would turn out to be the British conductor's final recording is a joyous, often deliciously irreverent affair, testifying to his sense of fun and acute ear for orchestral colour: there's something to make you smile in practically every bar of Les Animaux modèles (which really deserves to be as widely known and loved as Saint-Saëns's more popular musical menagerie), and the two short excerpts from Les mariés de la Tour Eiffel are marvellously uproarious.

His Sinfonietta boasts pin-sharp playing from the perennially underappreciated BBC Concert Orchestra (...) and an irresistible sense of fun... Tovey’s performance is tender and affectionate, superbly played.

Tovey has the full measure of these pieces, finding every ounce of their piquancy and weight – and in a recording in which in its forensic detail registers with total faithfulness. Tovey and the BBC Concert Orchestra revel in the charm, wit and humour of some of Poulenc’s finest orchestral pieces.