Carolin Widmann (violin), Alexander Lonquich (piano) ECM New Series 476 4546*****

Schubert's music for violin and piano presents an unusual range of challenges. The earliest three sonatas, which are not recorded here (the ones published posthumously as sonatinas), are disarmingly direct. The Fantasy in C, on the other hand, has a monstrously awkward piano part, and both it and the Rondo in B minor can, in the wrong hands, sound as if Schubert just didn't know when enough of a good thing was enough. Carolin Widmann and Alexander Lonquich are wonderfully alert to the risks, taking nothing for granted, and their playing is of a kind that never just coasts along. Every slightest gesture has been considered, every interplay is of interest, every strange harmonic shift makes sense, every repetition is made to sound fresh. And the recorded balance is kind to both players. url.ie/7ebo