was discovered by the Russian musicologist Boris Asafyev in his classic hundred-pluspage book on the subject in the 1940s, but it underlines the significance of the emotional, expressive values harboured within music’s component elements of rhythm, pitch, interval and so on. It is a concept with which Ibragimova will have grown up and it can be appreciated in her searching approach to Prokofiev’s music here, an approach that Osborne intuits with like-minded inflection, colouring and shaping. The bleak atmosphere of the opening Andante assai of the First Sonata is given further definition by the dissonance and drive of the Allegro brusco second movement and by the strange, unearthly weightlessness of the Andante third, at the end of which Ibragimova’s trills hover hauntingly on the edge of audibility.

To be sure, there are moments in the Second Sonata where the luminous lyricism is undermined by more astringent, preoccupied thoughts, and Ibragimova and Osborne are fully aware of their interpretative roles when that is the case, but they also find the seam of sanguine spirit that courses through the music. Different again are the Five Melodies that Prokofiev arranged for violin and piano from the wordless songs he wrote in 1920 for the Ukrainian-born soprano Nina Koshetz, who was soon to create the role of Fata Morgana in the Chicago premiere of The Love for Three Oranges. She also had a close association with Rachmaninov, who dedicated his Op 38 songs to her in 1916, and there was something about her vocal quality and personality that inspired both composers to write music of a particular hue. In the case of Prokofiev there are, on occasion, traits that were to imbue his later music; but there is also a dream-like, sometimes passionate, sometimes rarefied impulse that Ibragimova and Osborne convey with exactly the penetrating insight that is manifest throughout this remarkable disc.

RECORDINGS OF THE YEAR

August Editor’s Choices

BRUCH. PROKOFIEV Violin Concertos Guro Kleven Hagen vn Oslo PO / Bjarte Engeset Simax F PSC1266 A delight to be acquainted with the name and performance of a very impressive young musician, her interpretations entirely confident and full of character.

MOZART Violin Concertos Nos 3-5 Arabella Steinbacher vn Festival Strings Lucerne / Daniel Dodds Pentatone F Í PTC5186 479 Performances that exude sheer joy, from a soloist who sounds completely at ease in these works.

NØRGÅRD Symphonies Nos 1 & 8 VPO / Sakari Oramo Dacapo F Í 6 220574 The premiere recording of Nørgård’s latest symphony is a rewarding listen, the Vienna Philharmonic bringing their perfection to his fascinating and attractive sound world.

‘BRITISH WORKS FOR CELLO AND PIANO, VOL 3’ Paul Watkins vc Huw Watkins pf Chandos F CHAN10818 Another superb chamber partnership (this time from two brothers), instinctively collaborative in passages of both poignancy and urgency.

RACHMANINOV Piano Sonatas Nos 1 & 2. Three Preludes Xiayin Wang pf Chandos F CHAN10816 Chandos’s young pianist Xiayin Wang excels again, affirming not only her phenomenal skill but also her clear affinity with Rachmaninov’s music.

HANDEL The Triumph of Time and Truth Ludus Baroque / Richard Neville-Towle Delphian M b DCD34135 Excellent, spirited singing from both choir and soloists throughout – another superb release from this Edinburgh-based label with an impressive recent ‘hit’ rate.

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Alina Ibragimova and Steven Osborne (ear plugs in!)

MOODY Simeron PÄRT Stabat mater Soloists; Goeyvarts String Trio Challenge Classics F CC72616 The absolute control and pinpoint perfection required by pieces such as these is masterfully achieved: the result is incredibly, movingly, beautiful.

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‘AMERICA’ SWR Vocal Ensemble, Stuttgart / Marcus Creed Hänssler Classic F CD93 306 An attractive programme of 20th-century American music, moments of choral weight and exposed fragility alike approached with great individuality.

HANDEL Tamerlano Soloists; Il Pomo d’Oro / Riccardo Minasi Naïve B c V5373 Bursting with an energetic, dramatic drive and great characterisation from the soloists. An all-round excellent Handel release.

GRAMOPHONE RECORDINGS OF THE YEAR 2014 21