As the Hallé's composer in association, Colin Matthews spent five years on his orchestral arrangements of all 24 of Debussy's Preludes for piano, which Mark Elder faithfully premiered as they emerged. A first selection of 12, drawn from both books, was released on disc two years ago, paired with Elder's performance of La Mer, and now this disc adds the remainder, along with Matthews's own Monsieur Croche, composed as postlude to the set and called after the pseudonym Debussy adopted when he worked as a music critic in the 1900s.

As before, Matthews's exquisite treatment of this supremely pianistic music goes far beyond mere orchestration. While some of his arrangements are relatively straightforward—Danseuses de Delphes, which opens the first book and with which this sequence also opens, for instance, is a relatively strict translation of the original into orchestral terms—pieces such as Bruyères and Feux d'Artifice are virtually recomposed, though they never trespass beyond Debussy's own musical world. The whole set is a remarkable achievement, and Elder and his orchestra play these pieces with great care and sensitivity. Yet by comparison their account of Jeux seems rather lumbering, applying colour with a broad brush to what should be needle-point detail. The disc remains a treat, though.