Few works can take one back so vividly to the setting and spirit of their creation than the Brahms Violin Sonatas – and these players take us there. Written for the cultured private performances of his time – the audience for which Brahms wrote so much – they reflect his own life as a chamber player in their intimacy of exchange, shared nuances and balance. These thoughtful performances capture this.

Supportive exchange is the guiding principle. But though Brahms was often sparing in performance markings – and hated the metronome – he gave more hints in the duo genre, and these players respond to them. If I have a preference for the A major sonata, it is only because it gives the greatest such opportunities. The disarmingly conversational opening idea takes many different turns in the course of the movement and the players give each one its special touch. When he gives ‘teneramente’ to the song-based second theme, the piano takes wing. And when things get more heated in the development, both players are ready to play off each other with a spontaneity that only duo playing can provide.

Brahms’s marking for the opening of the G major sonata is challenging: the long-spun theme is given ‘Vivace’, yet with the caveat ‘ma non troppo’ and an individual piano marking of ‘dolce’; but the players get the mood and let the subtle cross rhythms unfold quite naturally. The D minor sonata is quite different, dramatic, tense and goal-directed, and here gets bold playing and plenty of contrast, like the explosive transformation of the recapitulation after the music is held back through the tenacious pedal of the development.

I derived immense pleasure from these flexible yet committed performances recorded in an intimate setting, and performers as well as listeners can learn a lot from them. One has to say that there is really no substitute for the experience of such as Brahms’s creative mastery – but neither for the capacity to respond to it.

Highly recommended.