Respighi: Violin Sonatas

Tanja Becker-Bender (violin), Péter Nagy (piano) Hyperion CDA 67930***

Such is the low reputation of Italian instrumental music from the decades either side of the turn of the 20th century that the persuasively expressed, romantic ardour of the Violin Sonata the student Respighi wrote in 1897 comes almost as a surprise. He was, of course, an adept violinist himself. That also helps to explain the seven shorter pieces included here, works of salonish, Kreislerish inclinations.

The best-known piece is the darkly-impassioned Violin Sonata in B minor, from 1917. Tanja Becker-Bender and Péter Nagy, who seemed such a musically ill-matched pair at this year's West Cork Chamber Music Festival, are much better balanced here. And although they miss out on many of the later sonata's interesting harmonic nuances, they communicate the gentle romance of the shorter pieces quite successfully. url.ie/4qdb