Respighi is so often pigeonholed as the composer of those luminous Roman orchestral frescoes and refashionings of musical antiquity that it is refreshing to be reminded that he had other interests as well. A great deal of his music rarely sees the light of day – the operas, for example – but the B minor Violin Sonata of 1917 does have a toehold on the repertoire and discography. Illuminatingly, Tanja Becker-Bender and Péter Nagy couple it here with the earlier D minor Sonata, written in 1897, when Respighi was still in his late teens. What a strikingly inventive work it is, particularly when played with such passion, purity of tone and poignancy as it is on this disc.

Respighi himself was a gifted violinist, so the idiomatic writing for the instrument is not a source of surprise, but there is also a marked creative individuality that reveals a precocious talent. True, the Austro-German influence of Brahms makes itself felt in the D minor Sonata but, even so, the ear is often alerted to traits that don’t sound like Brahms at all and seem to stem from within Respighi’s own youthful imagination. The B minor Sonata has its roots firmly in Romantic soil, with glances to both Germany and France, but again the breadth of melody and the general atmosphere of the music speak with a voice that Respighi could claim as his own. Some shorter character pieces, all of them exquisitely crafted miniatures, complete a revelatory programme, performed with rare panache.