Swiss violinist Georges-Emmanuel Schneider has the technique to give a good account of this demanding programme and his performances have other virtues, too. In the Bach, he’s adept at combining a degree of rhythmic flexibility with an inspiring sense of the music’s long-term progress. In the finale of the Bartók, the louder, Hungarian passages have an idiomatic swagger (though some of the ritardandos are overdone) and in the Ysaÿe first movement he sustains the slow tempo the composer asks for while avoiding any sense of stagnation.

I can’t, however, recommend any of these performances as a first choice. Vilde Frang’s recent account of the Bartók (EMI, 5/11), for example, avoids the feeling of laboriousness that sometimes afflicts Schneider, as well as introducing a far wider range of colours while, in the third movement, “Melodia”, making the unadorned lines much more expressive. In this era of historically informed performance, violinists such as Alina Ibragimova (Hyperion, 11/09) and Christian Tetzlaff (Hänssler, 8/07) have shown in a thrilling way how Bach can be rethought in terms of the modern instrument, in this sonata in particular finding a touching style and tone for the Andante (Schneider’s flowing tempo in this movement is fine but his manner is too forceful, not drawing enough attention to Bach’s beautiful dissonances). And the Ysaÿe, though a thoroughly enjoyable performance, doesn’t have the same brilliance and air of fantasy that Philippe Graffin (Hyperion, 7/97R) or Leonidas Kavakos (BIS) bring to it.