Debussy, Elgar and Respighi don’t usually come up in the same sentence, but all wrote their violin sonatas during or immediately following the first world war. James Ehnes and Andrew Armstrong make of them a satisfying recital disc that showcases Ehnes’s warm tone and purposeful phrasing. These are serious pieces, and while some performers have brought a lighter touch to passages in both the Debussy and Elgar, Ehnes and Armstrong make their heavyweight interpretations work. In the first movement of the Elgar they contrast the driving, almost mechanical piano supporting the opening with the romantic second theme; at the start of the third we hear the sun slowly come out, and the movement builds from this in a way that is superbly paced. Armstrong is more to the fore in the Respighi, a splurge of hyper-Romanticism that works thanks to the way both players can sustain a long line. After this, Sibelius’s wistful little wartime Berceuse is the perfect antidote.
