Viola players have reason to be grateful to Brahms for giving them the chance to perform the two Op 120 Sonatas, originally for clarinet. It’s less well known that he similarly provided a viola part as alternative to clarinet for the Op 114 Trio. For the sonatas he reworked the part, adding a few chords and double stops, as well as transposing some of it downwards (to exploit the instrument’s generally lower tessitura) but in the Trio he contented himself with a simple transcription. In Lawrence Power’s hands the extensive use of the viola’s upper register poses no problem; he commands a wide tonal spectrum throughout his range, and there’s no sense of strain. The Trio does lose something without clarinet, sounding more monochrome as the viola and cello blend together. This blending can, of course, be an advantage – the two string instruments in octaves, in the Adagio, make a wonderful sound. And this is a very fine performance, of exceptional expressive range, from extreme delicacy to thrilling power.

The sonatas as played here will surely demonstrate (even to clarinettists) that the viola version is in no way second best. I particularly enjoyed, in the Second Sonata, the second movement’s dark passion, relieved by glowing intensity in the middle section, where Simon Crawford-Phillips manages exactly to convey Brahms’s forte ma dolce e ben cantando. The final variations are just as impressive, each one so well characterised (listen out for Power’s graceful agility in Var 3) yet perfectly paced so that the coda seems an inevitable climax to the whole work.