Disc one is an unusual and diverting assembly of chamber works for various instruments (21 separate movements between the six titles). François Leleux (oboe) and Paul Meyer (clarinet) play the Three Romances and Fantasiestücke respectively with a mellifluous grace that tugs at the heart strings; the later, less well known works are sensitively characterised by their respective soloists, Eric Le Sage complementing them with some fine playing throughout, not least in the Adagio and Allegro for horn that concludes the disc. Here, Bruno Schneider really lets his hair down in the Allegro in an excitingly agile performance – Rasch und Feurig indeed!

The second disc has all three violin sonatas. It’s the first time I have listened to them one after the other at a single sitting. It is not recommended. Taken singly they are fine, though not great, works. Schumann can sometimes be like the pub bore who pins you in the corner and won’t stop talking. Nikolitch and Le Sage place the Grand Sonata (No 2 in D minor) first, a four-movement work of symphonic proportions whose relentless finale has a second subject suspiciously similar to the finale of Hummel’s E flat major/minor Quintet. The First Sonata, written it’s said in just four days, is a more amiable piece; the Third Sonata uses the intermezzo and finale from the collaborative FAE Sonata as its last two movements. Despite some scrawny violin tone in the D minor, these are accomplished and committed performances, full of the requisite vigour that reflects the hectic bout of creativity which marked their composition.