Janáček’s Moravian-inspired phantasy On an Overgrown Path has seldom sounded so polished or more unabashedly romantic and beautiful than in Daniel Rumler’s fluid, watercolour-tinged string arrangement, luxuriously delivered by Camerata Zürich. Purists may balk at the absence of the shadow-cast astringency that lends the original piano cycle its signature acerbic appeal. Others may trip over the nine poetic meditations by Maïa Brami, evocative though they are in their original, unaccompanied French, that separate the cycle’s two books. But few will deny the gossamer-delicate engagement and obvious emotional conviction of an ensemble that celebrates its 65th anniversary in 2022.

The group’s leader, Igor Karsko, ensures that shifts in dynamics are never less than elegantly negotiated; that phrasing, albeit drifting towards to the fleet-footed, errs on the side of considered response; and that rare moments of rapture are becomingly effusive. The result is a revealingly fresh traversal along a familiar Overgrown Path where unexpected narcotic perfumes laced with Mendelssohnian gloss bewitch and beguile while stressing pleasure over pain. On its own terms, it is none the less appreciable for that, a performance exquisitely realised and caught...