CD: Violin Sonatas by Brahms and Schumann: Yehudi Menuhin/ Hephzibah Menuhin

Though issued as part of Naxos Historical's series devoted to the recordings of Yehudi Menuhin, this disc is effectively a tribute to his younger sister Hephzibah, a remarkable pianist in her own right and an unfailingly sensitive partner to her brother in chamber music.

In the three sonatas presented here, there's none of the usual sense of "soloist" and "accompanist"; the two musicians function as an indivisible unit. Pride of place goes to their only extant performance of Schumann's Second Sonata, a superbly lyrical account, recorded in Paris in 1934 when they were in their teens.

Their early version of Brahms's strenuous Third Sonata lacks the intensity they brought to it in later recordings, though their performance of the First Sonata is wonderful. Recorded during Yehudi's 1940 tour of Australia - where Hephzibah lived during the second world war - it is well-nigh matchless in its combination of serenity and nobility.