Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations gets top billing here but the real prize is a thrillingly passionate performance of Chopin’s late Cello Sonata. And it’s not just the passion that thrills. Throughout, Edgar Moreau and David Kadouch display a profound musical intelligence so that every aspect of this dense and expansive score – phrasing, pacing, characterisation and dramatic contouring – feels natural and right. And they positively revel in the music’s wonderful weirdness; listen, for example, to the disorientating passage at 1'50" in the opening Allegro moderato.

I’m absolutely bowled over by how elegantly Kadouch clarifies the formidable and almost unrelenting tangle of notes. And while Moreau’s virtuosity is a marvel, as well, it’s his lyricism that makes the biggest impact. Note, say, the gorgeously intense way he sings the arching melody in the central section of the Scherzo (starting at 2'08").

The cellist’s performance of the Tchaikovsky is excellent, too, although not all the variations are equally successful. His stream of triplets in Var 1 sound almost lumpish when compared with Rostropovich’s graceful account with Karajan (DG, 3/85). It’s in the two slow variations (the third and sixth) where Moreau shines; with his unaffected phrasing and heartfelt, singing tone, they become arias worthy of Eugene Onegin. Michael Sanderling is a superb accompanist throughout (I love how the first bassoon’s hiccuping high notes pop out so clearly in the recurring tag that follows the theme and various variations).

The six encores are all superb, although the two Rachmaninov selections are particularly memorable. The cellist’s songful intensity and Kadouch’s delicately rippling accompaniment make the Melody from Op 21 utterly captivating, while the well-worn Vocalise (given here in its orchestral version) is probably the slowest on record, yet somehow Moreau pulls it off. The result is a soulful nine-minute tone poem that (much to my surprise) I’ve been wallowing in repeatedly.