Album: Laurent Korcia, Cinema (EMI Classics)

Aptly for one whose work so often features in movies, Korcia has chosen popular film music for his EMI debut release, ranging from the rich sentimentality of Morricone's theme for Cinema Paradiso and the worldly languour of Provost's Intermezzo to more diffident, vulnerable interpretations of "Moon River" and "Smile".

He offers homages to old masters, apeing Stephane Grappelli's flamboyant jazz fluidity on the violinist's "Les Valseuses", and following Jascha Heifetz's animated arrangement of Gershwin's blues spiritual "It Ain't Necessarily So", and he attacks Saint-Saëns's "Danse Macabre" with comparable rhythmic gusto. A violin/accordion duet of Lalo Schifrin's Mission: Impossible theme is a tad stiff.

Pick of the album:'Cinema Paradiso', 'It Ain't Necessarily So'