There are a few contemporary arrangements on these discs which render the title ‘Complete Works for Cello and Piano’ possibly a tiny bit of a cheat, but this wonderful disc is far the richer for it. This is especially the case with the Andante from the Second Piano Concerto, arranged by the pianist and conductor Cord Garben, which allows you to hear more than anywhere else on the disc the lyricism in the playing of Jonathan Aasgaard (principal cellist of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and a noted soloist in his own right) and Martin Roscoe. It also brings out the side of Brahms the Lieder-writer, summing up just how much of Brahms’s musical identity is crystallised in his cello music. There was a delicacy to Brahms’s music that was borne out of a traditionality that Brahms didn’t necessarily like in himself but which has always been firmly rooted in melody and harmony.

It’s hardly surprising, then, that his relationship with the cello was such a mutually satisfying and productive one. The first of the two discs in this set deals with the sonatas – the first proper ‘duo’ sonatas Brahms wrote, with the intention of absolute parity between the parts – and in them you can hear the depth with which both players understand the intimacy between the two instruments. There is not a sentence started by Aasgaard that Roscoe leaves unfinished; no question unanswered.

The sonatas of Brahms, of any genre or period, are nothing if the piano part is not as well played as the melody line. More than usual, therefore, it is important not to understate the value that Martin Roscoe adds to this recording with his utterly faultless playing. He makes you properly listen – the confidence you have in your own ability to understand the music is set up by him at the start, and stays by your side until the end. This is particularly noticeable in the fugal sections of the final movement of the First Sonata: as a whole the sonata is heaving with Bachian reference, and both Roscoe and Aasgaard understand that heritage, minutely crafting their performance to the point where it really is hard to think of a better one.