Album: Bartok, Piano Concertos / BBC Philharmonic (Chandos)

As Gianandrea Noseda's tenure with the BBC Phil draws to close, this finely disciplined performances reiterates how great an effect he has had on his orchestra.

From the paranoid wranglings of the First Concerto to the helter-skelter glamour of the Second and the burlesque of the Third, the playing is first rate. Pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet delivers coruscating cadenzas and locates an almost Beethovenian limpidity for the Adagio Religioso. Starrier recordings exist, but for unanimity of style, this is excellent.