The latest addition to the slowly growing Albéric Magnard discography presents us with an unusual if striking coupling. French violinist Geneviève Laurenceau and German pianist Oliver Triendl are the latest pair to tackle the immense Violin Sonata, written for Ysaÿe in 1901. But where most interpreters have juxtaposed it with a sonata by one of Magnard’s predecessors or contemporaries, Laurenceau and Triendl opt for the less familiar Piano Trio of 1905, for which they are joined by cellist Maximilian Hornung.

The Trio, in fact, is the real revelation. It’s superbly done, with an almost instinctive sense of interplay between the players, and a fine understanding of Magnard’s emotional ambiguities and his trenchant approach to form. Magnard has sometimes been dubbed ‘the French Bruckner’ on account of his fondness for grand structures. Here, however, we’re reminded of just how deeply his imagination is anchored in traditions that stretch back through d’Indy (his teacher) and Franck to Beethoven. It’s all wonderfully taut, with austerely beautiful accounts of the first two movements and a nicely edgy approach to the waltz that forms its third. The finale, by turns lyrical and aggressive, has been criticised as discursive but here feels not a second too long.

Laurenceau and Triendl’s approach to the Sonata, meanwhile, is comparatively reined in. Though nothing feels rushed, speeds are brisk, bringing the work in at 40 minutes instead of the usual 45. Both players rise to its technical challenges with considerable dexterity, and Laurenceau is very persuasive in the emotionally detailed recitatives with which the work opens, the troubled beauty of the second movement and the sense of hard-won serenity at the close. Some might prefer Augustin Dumay and Jean-Philippe Collard’s grander approach, coupled with Dumay’s first recording of the Franck Sonata. But this is very fine nonetheless.