Two sonatas written in 1883, Strauss’s the work of a precociously gifted 16-year-old who would up his game four years later with a masterly (and musically rather more impressive) violin sonata, Grieg’s a product of early middle age and despite the composer’s own misgivings, music of real quality. Still, according to an informative booklet interview with journalist and writer Jessica Duchen, cellist Christoph Croisé and pianist Oxana Shevchenko thought that these two pieces, with Fauré’s familiar Élégie added, would make a wonderful programme. A brief trawl through available alternatives for the Strauss reveals an abundance of interpretative riches, not least cellist Angelica May with pianist Leonard Hokanson (SWR), cellist André Navarra with Erika Kilcher at the piano (Calliope) and, of special interest, a vintage coupling of these very same works with cellist Ludwig Hoelscher and pianist Hans Richter-Haaser but which adds instead of the Fauré Brahms’s First Cello Sonata, performances that are memorable first and foremost for their unaffected style (the second movement of the Brahms is a real minuet, crisp but not dry! – DG, 3/59).

Not that there’s anything wrong with the disc under review: Christoph Croisé’s tone is warm and yielding, while Oxana Shevchenko proves a feisty and at times sensitive partner. But listen to the agitated yet shimmering opening of the Grieg in the hands of Steven Isserlis and Stephen Hough (Hyperion, 7/15) or Leslie Parnas with Manfred Fock (SWR) and there’s an extra level of command that keeps you riveted rather than merely listening. Esther Nyffenegger (Divox), a wonderful cellist too little known, also offers us a vibrant account of the Grieg (coupled with sonatas by Franck and Chopin), lively yet emotionally attuned to the music’s deeper elements.

This trio of performances by two gifted young artists makes for an immediately rewarding encounter but as soon as you start to look – and listen – farther afield, you’re likely to find versions that you prefer. For those hell-bent on Grieg with Strauss, I’d give Hoelscher and Richter-Haaser a try, although in mono, but if it’s digital sound you’re after then Isserlis and Hough are your best bet, albeit in the context of two different CD programmes.