Acclaimed in his youth as the ‘greatest hope of German music’ – presumably as a slight to Hindemith, of whom he was a shorter-lived contemporary – Karol Rathaus (1895-1954) remains long overdue for rediscovery despite the half-dozen available discs devoted to his music (and a dozen or more mixed-repertoire issues featuring it). The Violin Sonata, Op 14 (1925; actually the first of two) is typical of him, beautifully proportioned and laid out for the players, if lacking the unique voice of a Hindemith or Stravinsky. The performance is impeccable, with Judith Ingolfsson a strong and idiomatic interpreter and Vladimir Stoupel (who has recorded Rathaus’s First and Third Piano Sonatas for AVI‑Music) a splendid accompanist. They are more fluent than rivals Karolina Piątkowska-Nowicka and Bogumia Weretka-Bajdor in an all‑Rathaus programme.

By contrast, neither Heinz Tiessen (1887-1971) nor Hungarian-born Paul Arma (born Imre Weisshaus in 1905) have more than a smattering of isolated recordings (Tiessen has one disc devoted to his works, piano music, on Toccata Classics). His Duo-Sonata also dates from 1925, cast in two moderately sized movements preceded by a brief, slightly abrasive ‘Präludium’. The central Andante quasi adagio is exquisite, full of genuine melodic charm, and the Allegro molto vivace finale is scarcely less impressive.

A pupil of Bartók, Arma resettled in Paris in 1933, changing his name as well. His Violin Sonata dates from 1949 and is by some margin the largest work here. The opening Lento occupies over half of the sonata’s length, its inexorable, impassioned progress encompassing pathos, anger and mourning, the writing often spare in texture; it closes with an elegy of Shostakovian breadth. I am not convinced that following it with another slow movement (Sostenuto rubato), however brief, quite works as it dissipates the expressive tension and robs the Allegro of its cathartic impact. Nonetheless, it is a fine score, and like the Tiessen is receiving its first recording, compellingly performed here. Vivid sound, too.