Misterioso indeed. And it is not just Valentin Silvestrov’s eponymous work that emanates that quality. His Violin Sonata, part of his obsession with a music composed as it were after the death of Music, shares its magical effect of an intense yet ungraspable beauty. The more familiar Silvestrov’s building-blocks seem to be, the stranger and more compelling the contexts he fashions for them. It is almost as though Schumann had penetrated to the far side of his late works and stumbled upon an unheard-of realm of wonder and baffled enchantment. More straightforward in its childlike innocence, Pärt’s Spiegel im Spiegel, originally for violin and piano, also goes superbly on clarinet, and its blend of consolation and detachment is as haunting as anything in his output.

Composed in 1949 and 1952, Galina Ustvolskaya’s Trio and Sonata come from the period of her most intense relationship with her teacher, Shostakovich. Her Trio is the work he quotes in his Fifth Quartet and Michelangelo Suite, while her Sonata’s ghostly taps on the belly of the violin are echoed in his Quartet No 13. Perhaps the most striking thing about these pieces, however, is their determination to keep the Shostakovich influence at arm’s length. Their ascetic-passionate tone is unlike anything else in music, even if distantly related to Stravinsky and Bartók. These particular works were superbly recorded in 1994 by Yevgeny Malov and friends (Megadisc Classics – nla). Given a straight choice I would still marginally prefer those Megadisc performances. Lubimov and partners are mellower to the point of disengagement. But this music still casts a powerful spell and, given the superb recording quality, the new disc is one that deserves to be widely heard.