Leonidas Kavakos and Yuja Wang show how to interpret Brahms’s intentions, their expression precisely tailored to the expressive curves clearly shown in the score. Wang and Kavakos give consistently outstanding performances. Wang has a way of making even the most complex passages beautifully clear. Without over-emphasising turning points in the harmony, she’s able to point the music’s direction of travel, often simply by stressing a particular pitch in a chord. When she allows herself greater freedom, her rubato gives an air of improvisation. Kavakos similarly delights in finding an ideal expression for each phrase: of the violinists heard in other recent recordings - Jana Vonaskova-Novakova, Corey Cerovsek and Catherine Manoukian - he shows by far the widest range of tone colours. I’m impressed that he saves a more passionate tone for phrases marked espressivo (for example in the Andante sections of the middle movement of No 2 in A, Op 100), giving voice to the music’s emotional character in a way that continuous intensity would destroy.

One aspect of Kavakos’s playing I’d question is his habit of articulating notes within a single bow where Brahms has marked a legato slur. However, the duo are otherwise outstanding in almost every way.