He may long ago have become a footnote in musical history but Robert Fuchs (1847-1927) was more than the able pedagogue whom Brahms admired through being no mere epigone. Having recorded the Serenades, already in Fuch’s lifetime considered his most significant works, Naxos turns to the first three of the six violin sonatas that range over the greater part of his creativity.

Much of Fuch’s inherent reticence – whether as a man or musician – is evident from the First Sonata (1877), its leisurely initial Allegro focusing on wistful rumination that intensifies only provisionally in the development, then a central Andante whose chaste ‘song without words’ eloquence affords greater contrast with the forthright and purposeful finale. Underlining that Fuchs evolved but incrementally, the Second Sonata (1883) unfolds from an opening Allegro of no mean impetus, via a slow movement whose melodic writing verges on the hymnic, to a finale whose giocoso marking does not exclude a Brahmsian fervency. This is even truer of the Third Sonata (1902), its first movement fusing thematic dexterity with an emotional range carried over to an Andante whose gracious variations admit of deeper sentiments, then a final Allegro paying homage to the Hungarian style beloved by Viennese composers of Fuch’s era.

Music such as this needs to be performed with due regard to its textural clarity and expressive poise, which it receives in abundance from Hyejin Chung and Warren Lee – the attentiveness of their music-making well served by the admirably lucid sound. Qualities, indeed, that will doubtless be equally in evidence on the follow-up release of Fuch’s subsequent three sonatas.