Jacqueline du Pré was only 23 when she recorded her heady account of the Brahms cello sonatas. But this new recording trumps that, for Bruno Philippe was just 21 and his pianist, the sonorously named Tanguy de Williencourt, only a couple of years older. Both studied at the Paris Conservatoire and they offer playing of splendidly assured maturity and insight, the two artists finding the requisite serenity for the closing moments of the E minor Sonata’s opening movement.

From the off, Philippe’s approach compels you to listen, to embark on the journey with him, even if the overly close recording catches every breath and every bow sound. True, there are times when I wanted a bit more freedom: in the First Sonata’s inner movement and the Adagio affettuoso of the Second, Isserlis and Fournier (in his old Decca recording with Backhaus) find more flexibility and a greater degree of reactivity with their pianists (as does du Pré in the latter, though at a famously slow pace); but Philippe makes a particularly soulful sound in the treble register, and the climax of the Adagio, with its fervent pizzicato, is conveyed with great immediacy. The third movement is unashamedly romantic, while there’s plenty of imaginative story-telling in the finale.

I found the Schumann just a degree less convincing. Isserlis finds more light and shade in the second of the Fantasiestücke and an almost miraculous elasticity in the third, though again Philippe’s intrinsic tone is alluring and Williencourt imbues Schumann’s rhythms with a springy buoyancy. It will be intriguing to hear what these two considerable talents do next.