There is a strong sense of the Classical sonata developing slowly but surely into the egaliatarian duo sonata of the Romantic period in the Brahms clarinet sonatas contained on this disc. That is due in part to the insightful accompaniment skills of the multi-talented Julian Milford as well as Maximiliano Martín’s sweet-toned playing. The last movement of the First Sonata is full of childlike positivity, viewed through the slightly sad nostalgic lens of the older composer: Martín effectively identifies this and firmly characterises his performance as one inescapably of late Brahms. These are, after all, the pieces for which Brahms came out of retirement and which take their place among a whole raft of other new pieces for that clarinettist most revered by Brahms, Richard Mühlfeld.

Given that the score is distincty lacking in assertive dynamic direction, there is enormous depth in Martín’s interpretation. It can occasionally be very slightly lacking in variety but it is hard to feel that in any way to be a bad thing: Mühlfeld was well known to have a clarinet that made a light, sweet sound and there is a strong sense on this disc that Martín is working with care and precision to live within the means and intentions of the music. The disc also includes the four Fantasy Pieces of Brahms’s older Danish contemporary Niels Gade, which, although not substantial pieces in the same mould as the Brahms, are a set of vignettes that are as beautiful and worth discovering as they are lovingly played by Martín and Milford.