Hackles might rise at the idea of tampering with Mendelssohn’s Songs without Words, those piano gems from that fecund period of early Romanticism, but that’s to reckon without Ferdinand David. He arranged a selection of them for violin and piano, in all likelihood to extend the violin repertoire of his friend, with whom he had closely collaborated and given the first performance of the Violin Concerto. In all David arranged 32 ‘songs’, omitting the final set, Op 102, and, among others and somewhat surprisingly, the magisterial ‘Funeral March’, Op 62 No 3.

One never questions the aesthetic behind David’s arrangements, which speaks volumes for these strongly characterised performances, each one worthy of a separate comment in another context. Michael Barenboim and Natalia Pegarkova-Barenboim, his partner in both senses of the word, invest in them an old-world charm. By that I don’t mean the polite and refined touch that dogged Mendelssohn’s art once upon a time, for there is nothing superficial or complacent about their playing. From the beginning of the Andante con moto, Op 19 No 1, where Barenboim’s employment of portamento lays down a definite mark, one is acutely aware, as is his partner, of the strong sense of direction in which these performers are heading. In the Presto agitato, Op 53 No 3, taken at a steady tempo, there’s time for him to articulate the double-stopping; in the ‘Hunting Song’, Op 19 No 2, the primary colours of the hunting scene are projected vividly and on a grand scale – those hounds from Franck’s Le chasseur maudit might be on our tail.

Of the three ‘Venetian Gondola Songs’ arranged by David, Mendelssohn composed Op 19 No 4 in Venice. On specific points of detail, listen out for the sound of the treble bell pealing from the keyboard in Op 67 No 1 and how the Barenboims caress the increasingly nostalgic extension of the melody in Op 30 No 6. The scurrying melody of the ‘Spring Song’, Op 62 No 6, a natural selection given that the skipping tune is better suited to the violin in many ways, is given its due in this graceful performance. In its original form, Op 62 No 1 might sound facile but here those final pizzicato chords land with evident pleasure from these players. These are performances we can admire without reservation and they make for compulsive listening.