Allegro amabile, the tempo indication for the first movement of Brahms’s Op 120 No 2, seems almost an invitation from the composer to indulge in the music’s effusive lyricism, so who can blame Antoine Tamestit and Cédric Tiberghien for doing just that? Tamestit plays the bronze-toned ‘Mahler’ Stradivarius viola and Tiberghien matches it with a gorgeously mellow 1899 Bechstein. The duo take their time, and it pays off in a profusion of expressive detail. Listen just 25 seconds in, for example, where Tamestit plays a rapidly ascending passage dolce, just as Brahms asks for, or to how sensitively Tiberghien shapes a simple yet similarly marked passage at 1'33".

If you want to bask in this sonata’s autumnal glow, these players’ expressively meticulous performance will do very nicely indeed. I’m not convinced that the same approach is as convincing in the opening movement of Op 120 No 1, however. It’s not just that the musicians’ leisurely tempo seems not quite Allegro appassionato, either (particularly if you grew up, as I did, with Primrose and Firkušný’s febrile late-1950s reading on EMI). Try, say, the extraordinary passage at 5'25", where Brahms takes the figure first heard in the piano part at 1'59" and rhythmically collapses it. The result should be momentarily disorientating, I believe, but here it’s played so cleanly and easily that it passes by almost unnoticed.

Happily, the remaining movements prove wonderfully satisfying. Tamestit’s legato in the Andante un poco adagio is so smooth it reminds one the work was originally conceived for the clarinet. Tiberghien’s pearlescent tone in the third movement’s Trio section is absolutely magical and the frothy finale finds a dazzling play of light and shade.

Tamestit takes the vocal part in ‘Nachtigall’ and the beloved ‘Wiegenlied’ – both lovely instrumental adaptations – but it’s Matthias Goerne’s singing of Op 91 that leaves a far deeper impression. It’s unusual to hear a male singer in these songs, especially the ‘Geistliches Wiegenlied’, which suggests a mother’s prayer. With ardour and vulnerability, Goerne demonstrates that a paternal plea can be just as heart-rending. Indeed, as a parent struggling through this pandemic, his performance hit me with unexpected force.