Duo526 were formed in 2011 by the Canadian violinist Kerry DuWors and Japanese pianist Futaba Niekawa while in Charles Castleman’s class at the Eastman School in Rochester, NY. The name derives from Mozart’s duo Sonata, K526, which they studied in that class, since when they launched their Mozart in Public Spaces (MiPS) project to video record all of Mozart’s sonatas aligned to the global Streets Piano initiative. Their projects have ranged much wider than the Classical repertoire in the ensuing years, as this second album demonstrates (the first featured Janáček, Enescu and Grieg, also for Navona, in 2014).

DuWors and Niekawa are a beautifully balanced duo, with exceptional intonation and a tangible empathy. DuWors’s feeling for line is well exemplified by the account of Villa-Lobos’s marvellous Sonata fantasia No 2 (1914), the second of his three violin sonatas, especially in the central Largo, the longest span, where her soaring cantilena over Niekawa’s rippling accompaniment is a real delight.

In the Second Bax Sonata (1915, rev 1920), duo526 face stiff competition from Erich Gruenberg and John McCabe (Chandos, 9/90), Laurence Jackson and Ashley Wass (Naxos, 1/08), and Tasmin Little and Martin Roscoe (Dal Segno – nla). DuWors and Niekawa produce a finely drawn account that need fear little from comparisons with these rivals, and choice will likely come down to couplings. Gruenberg/McCabe are the safest recommendation for the Bax, paired with No 1; Little/Roscoe, preferring the Elgar, are also first-rate. That said, duo526’s unique programme of Villa-Lobos, Bax and William Bolcom’s terrific early Duo Fantasy (1973) is hard to fault. They relish Bolcom’s slightly Ivesian juxtaposition of seemingly disparate elements, requiring different musical responses than with Bax or Villa-Lobos. It concludes a rather fine recital. Captured in very good sound, this is warmly recommended.