Last year, wearing T-shirt and jeans, Joshua Bell famously busked for 45 minutes with his Stradivarius violin at a Washington subway station during the morning rush . Of 1,097 passing travellers, 27 threw money totalling $32. Only seven stopped to listen. Just one recognised America’s mop-headed star of the concert halls. No doubt the numbers would have been higher had Bell sported the fancy white shirt, dangling black tie and slinky trousers worn in the extraordinary poster-cum-calendar included with this disc of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons – a CD unusual enough on musical grounds alone.

In recent years, we’ve heard Vivaldi caressed into intimate chamber music by Janine Jansen; stomped on by Nigel Kennedy’s bovver boots; spattered with quirks by Italian period-instrument bands. Bell turns the clock back to an older, more romantic era. He sings with his violin in a rounded, golden tone. Behind him is the plump presence of 18 string players from the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields, playing as if the “authentic” movement had never happened.

The veteran Sony producer Steven Epstein opts for a close, lush, bass-heavy sound. It’s pretty enough, though a poor advertisement for the music’s textural clarity or John Constable’s nimble harpsichord continuo, which you can hardly hear. Bell himself you can certainly hear, and very often he’s superb. Whether trilling in spring or shivering in winter, his phrasing stays lively and fresh, except when he’s tempted to show off his sensitive rubato and leave phrases drooping rather too much.

The Academy members prove more than polished antiques. Their plucked strings are an ear-tingling joy; and though they’re heavy in sound, they can move nimbly when asked. Alongside the Seasons, Sony’s overpackaged CD also offers Tartini’s Devil’s Trill sonata. Here, Constable’s harpsichord comes more to the fore. But you still know who’s king of the hill. It’s Bell, playing with enough character and virility to make any commuter pause. Well, in theory.

(Sony Classics, TMS £13.99, call 0845 6026328)

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