What is Beethoven’s Op 64 Cello Sonata, you may ask? Well, it’s an arrangement, first published in 1807, of the Op 3 String Trio, a six-movement, 40-minute work that takes Mozart’s great Divertimento K563 as its model. The arrangement is a fairly literal one – the most frequent departure from the original being the downward extension of the bass-line, by means of doubling or octave transposition – but imaginative in the way it creates dialogue between the two instruments. I suppose such a long stretch of slightly immature Beethoven isn’t likely to become a familiar recital item, but Kliegel and Tichman make an excellent case for it, with expressive, stylish playing throughout. The recorded sound, too, is admirably clear, with a nice warm sonority.

The A major Sonata also gets a most sympathetic performance; in the first movement, the playing has a breadth and confidence that easily encompasses the music’s great emotional range. I’ve heard more insistent, urgent accounts of the Scherzo, and more mercurial versions of the last movement, but in their more moderate manner Tichman and Kliegel are entirely satisfying. The only moment that doesn’t quite come off is the finale’s coda, where the piano transforms the brilliant, witty style of the rest of the movement into a Fidelio-like mood of elation – of recent interpreters only Martha Argerich has been able to produce the ringing intensity this passage demands. The Variations are done with great spirit, each one well characterised, the two minor-key variations impressively sombre. In short, a sound recommendation, both for the rare Op 64 and as an excellent bargain version of the more familiar items.