You could be forgiven for looking at the title of this latest collaboration between French masters of their art, Jean-Guihen Queyras and Alexandre Tharaud, and assuming that ‘complices’ refers to their own chamber complicity as longtime regular duo partners. However, much as that relationship does sing across the album, the title actually refers to the encore – when suddenly the musician enters into a direct relationship with their audience and, guided by the atmosphere in the room, proffers them a spontaneous gift.

So here we have a disc of encores to hit all moods and genres: opening with a perkily fluttering and precise reading of the Allegro di molto from Piatigorsky’s transcription of Haydn’s Divertimento in D; Brahms and Popper; and top-of-the-pops picks such as Tchaikovsky’s ‘Valse sentimentale’ and Saint-Saëns’s ‘Le cygne’, which are both lightly floating, gently poetic, less-is-more readings to die for. All of which lands us at the wonderful final trio of works (albeit initially bittersweet-tinged at having to wave adieu to Tharaud). First, a haunting solo cello and tenor saxophone duet with Raphaël Imbert which begins with John Coltrane’s Alabama, Queyras lyricising in his top registers over a deep, throbbing saxophone pedal, before morphing into the Sarabande from Bach’s dark Solo Cello Suite in E minor, Imbert snaking melancholic high-register jazz improvisations around Queyras’s intently listening lines.

Time has appeared to stand still through that pairing, and the impression continues through the intensity and extended techniques of Dutilleux’s first Strophe sur le nom de Sacher. But then comes the most perfect and subtle gear-shift to finish, peace descending by way of a circling back to Haydn for the serene cello-solo Adagio from his Symphony No 13 in D, for which Queyras is exquisitely supported by the French period ensemble La Diane Française under Stéphanie-Marie Degand.

Which brings me to my final point: that while this isn’t the first disc of encores that has held together as a cohesive programme – think of Alban Gerhardt’s discs of Casals and Rostropovich encores (Hyperion, 9/11, 1/17), or Vilde Frang’s ‘Homage’ to the virtuoso violinist-arrangers of the early 20th century (Warner, 1/18) – it does stand out for having brought cohesion to a far more stylistically and thematically diverse set of encores than is usual. Indeed, far from being a pick’n’mix standing at the ready to be chopped up into a multitude of playlists (not that I don’t hope it doesn’t turn up everywhere), this is a genuine, single, sublime work of art, and to achieve this from such a multi-angled selection takes unusual artistry.