Unlike most young violinists who devote their debut CDs to flashy repertoire, Maria Ioudenitch puts forth the proposition that the violin is a singing rather than a slashing instrument. The result is an intelligently curated recital with song at the centre. It begins with Romances by Clara and Robert Schumann back to back, both showcasing the warmth and evenness of Ioudenitch’s sonority in all registers. Indeed, the full-bodied patina of her sustained double-stops evokes Fritz Kreisler’s beefy tone. Her vibrato is generous yet never throbbing, while long melodic lines are both shapely and seamless, as Fanny Mendelssohn’s ‘Erwin’ ravishingly demonstrates.

Nadia Boulanger’s ‘Soleils couchants’ features delicate interplay between the brilliant pianist Kenneth Broberg’s supple high-register accompaniment and Ioudenitch’s eloquent phrases. It contrasts with the musicians’ intense yet flexible interplay throughout Amy Beach’s Romance, which provides the bridge into a section encompassing Russian Romantic transcriptions of works by Tchaikovsky, Medtner, Rachmaninov and Glinka. Here Ioudenitch and Broberg channel their strong soloist profiles to engaging conversational ends and stylish effect.

Schubert’s Fantasie has been lucky on record, and this latest traversal does not disappoint. Broberg gives uncommon shape and direction to the first movement’s rippling tremolos, which complement Ioudenitch’s raptly sustained cantabiles. The Allegretto boasts both tonal sparkle and rhythmic incisiveness, if not quite matching Szymon Goldberg and Radu Lupu (Decca, 3/81, 4/90) for organic ebb and flow. In the central variations based on Schubert’s song ‘Sei mir gegrüsst’, few contenders surpass Ioudenitch and Broberg for sheer virtuoso sheen, not to mention the clarity and focus of the violinist’s dazzling pizzicato technique. My only quibble about the final selection, Strauss’s ‘Morgen’, is the halo of reverberation surrounding guest singer Theresa Pilsl, as if her agile soprano voice had been recorded in a different venue and dubbed in after the fact. Should Ioudenitch and Broberg team up again, may I suggest that they record the Medtner violin sonatas?