This programme is identical to Emmanuelle Bertrand and Pascal Amoyel’s, with seven song arrangements sandwiched between the two cello sonatas. Interpretatively, however, the differences are stark, with Antonio Meneses and Gérard Wyss offering forthright performances that generally lack the fantasy and flair of Bertrand and Amoyel’s.

At times, Meneses and Wyss’s approach pays off, as in their darkly expressive ‘Liebestreu’, which goes right to the heart of the grief-stricken song, and ‘Immer leiser wird mein Schlummer’, where their understatement has real eloquence (although I love how Bertrand and Amoyel’s slower tempo and added intensity bring out the song’s Mahlerian qualities). On the other hand, ‘Feldeinsamkeit’ drags, ‘Wie Melodien zieht es mir’ is bland, and I miss the marvellous suppleness Bertrand and Amoyel bring to ‘Minnelied’.

What I like very much about Meneses and Wyss’s recordings of the sonatas is the sense of an equal partnership. Perhaps this is partly due to the engineering, which gets the balance exactly right, but I think it may also be the way Wyss brings out expressive detail in the piano part. Listen, say, to the return of the opening music in the first movement of the E minor Sonata (at 9'40"), where Wyss makes his right-hand part not merely an accompaniment but a countermelody of sorts – an effect that really drew me in. The minuet-like second movement has a lovely lilt, and its trio section is more pensive than in Bertrand and Amoyel’s account, and thus more autumnal and melancholic. If only the finale had more fire: it’s got the proper air of studiousness suggested by the fugal writing but it gets bogged down in notes.

The F major Sonata also has positive attributes – the plain-spoken passion of the Adagio affettuoso, for instance, and the easy-going finale – but Bertrand and Amoyel dig deeper, emotionally, and find more of the drama in the score. This new Avie recording is certainly worth hearing, not least for Meneses’s glorious tone and Wyss’s sometimes revelatory insights, but Bertrand and Amoyel take top honours.