Interestingly, the first time Paganini’s 24 Caprices were recorded in any form was in 1940 with Ferdinand David’s piano accompaniments (published five years after Schumann’s in 1860), played by the 20-year-old Ossy Renardy and Walter Robert, and still the only recording of this version. So far as I know, this is only the fifth time that Schumann’s piano accompaniments have been recorded, the last of his works that have survived from his time in the asylum at Endenich in 1855, preserved by Clara but not published until 1941.

I have not heard Tossy Spivakovsky and Lester Taylor (Omega Classica, 1966) but there is little to choose between this new version (albeit with its muddy piano sound) and two made in the 1990s: David Garrett and Bruno Canino (DG, 8/97) and Ingolf Turban with Giovanni Bria (Claves, 1994). Maristella Patuzzi produces a lovely, airy tone in the middle register (I particularly liked Nos 11, 18 and 21) but where speed and articulation are paramount, none of these compare with the consistently successful Benjamin Schmid and Lisa Smirnova (MDG, 1995), who also benefit from an ideal recorded balance between the two instruments.

The Patuzzis’ Caprice No 1, for instance, clocks in at 2'01", Schmid and Smirnova in an exhilarating 1'43". Likewise the central section of No 13 and the presto perpetuum mobile of No 16 in G minor (with the added advantage of Smirnova’s lighter touch). No 4, the longest of the Caprices by some way (6'41" from the Patuzzis), has passages of chalky scraping and dodgy intonation. In No 9, one of the six favoured by Liszt for transformation into a piano solo, Paganini specifically marks the opening phrase sulla tastiera imitando il flauto (e piano), followed by imitando il corno (e forte); Maristella Patuzzi offers little dynamic or tonal contrast. So a noteworthy disc but one that is ultimately outshone by the competition.