Nash EnsembleOnyx ONYX 4067 ****

This collection of rarely heard late-19th-century Russian chamber music is anything but orthodox. Borodin's 1860 String Sextet No. 2 in D minor is incomplete – only the first two movements survive. Glazunov's 1892 String Quintet in A, Op 39, follows Schubert in using two cellos rather than two violas. And Arensky's 1894 String Quartet in A minor, Op 35, is scored for violin, viola and two cellos. But It's the Arensky which actually contains the best-known music. Its central movement, arranged for string orchestra, has an independent life as the Variations on a theme of Tchaikovsky. The pieces are more focused on pleasure than profundity, and in these beautifully polished Nash Ensemble performances, fall agreeably, sometimes delectably, on the ear. The Arensky Variations are a delight in their original form. See url.ie/dzi7