Ravel’s Introduction and Allegro has been near and dear to my heart since I was prevailed upon to lead a performance of it nearly 50 years ago at Stanford. Here, given a reading by members of the Nash Ensemble, it matches what my heart remembers of that long-ago engagement at Lane Medical Library—beautiful, vibrant, happy. It’s a wonderful way to begin a new release on a new label from a storied group, a release that also serves as a tribute to the late Amelia Freedman, who founded the ensemble in 1964 and served as its spiritus rector for 60 years. But the best is yet to come. The recording includes a brilliant, big-boned reading of the Trio in A Minor, and a very rewarding account of the Quartet in F. Most impressive of all, perhaps, is the reading given by Alasdair Beatson and Simon Crawford-Phillips of Ravel’s own two-piano version of Ravel’s La Valse—simply stunning from start to finish. The sonics (the recording was made at the Yehudi Menuhin School in Stoke d’Abernon) are as astonishing as the playing: spacious, beautifully balanced, weighty in the bass, vividly present.