Amadeo Roldan's most famous work, the ballet La Rebambaramba (1926/7) about Havana low life in 1830, relies on very heavily accented Afro-Cuban rhythms; his Ritmica V is for percussion only. From exactly the same time and background come the three Cuban dances by Garcia Caturla (a pupil of Nadia Boulanger who, as a magistrate, was assassinated by a criminal he was about to try), but these reveal a far greater subtlety of harmony and instrumentation, particularly in the second movement. Sophistication of nationalist material is to be found in the dances from Ginastera's ballet Estancia, depicting a day on an Argentinian ranch: the virtuosic final malambo is frenetically exciting, but the peaceful ''Dance of the wheat'' is hauntingly lovely. Far more 'civilized' and elegant than nearly all these works, however, is the ingenious, sensitively written and attractive symphonic study of the Argentine tango by Piazzolla, another Boulanger pupil: it would be a knock-out at the Proms. Altogether a highly recommendable disc, brilliantly recorded with demonstration quality.

-- Lionel Salter, Gramophone [6/1993]