What a fascinating composer Ferdinand Rebay (1880-1953) is. A student of Robert Fuchs at the Vienna Conservatory, he completed his studies by producing Erlkönig for large orchestra, which his teacher considered the best work to have come out of the conservatory in three decades.

Some years later we find Rebay teaching at the Vienna Music Academy. It’s here that he met Jakob Ortner, the academy’s professor of guitar. And his destiny. For Rebay would go on to produce at least 300 chamber works (according to music publisher Bergmann Edition) featuring the classical guitar with various other instruments – all in a highly accessible late-Romantic idiom.

I admit it: when this three-CD set of Rebay’s complete music for violin and guitar metaphorically landed on my desk for review I was sceptical, expecting little of substance. In fact, that’s only true to the extent that this is unpretentious music, for it is also unfailingly charming, often very witty, and profoundly well crafted. So much so that I went back to listen to a selection of other Rebay recordings in the catalogue, including the guitar sonatas and Brilliant Classics’ previous two issues covering Rebay’s complete music for viola and guitar and clarinet, flute and guitar. Wonderful!

But to return to the present set. The arrangements of Beethoven’s 12 German Dances are unexpectedly sonorous, recalling orchestral arrangements of the piano solo originals. The Lully, Bach and Handel transcriptions are very Kreisler, in a good way. The folk-song variations afford equal opportunities for both instruments to shine, while the two sonatas stand apart in terms of a more complex working-out of ideas. Piercarlo Sacco and Andrea Dieci are eloquent, enthusiastic advocates for this music, their enjoyment obvious.