Who was Léon de Saint-Lubin (1805-50)? His Lucia fantasy was recorded by Jan Kubelík in 1902, but since then he seems to have been almost totally forgotten. Born in Turin, his family moved later on to Germany, where he became a pupil of Spohr. The 1820s saw him in Vienna, where he had contact with Beethoven and established a reputation as an orchestral leader and solo violinist. The latter part of his life was spent in Berlin. Schumann wrote scornfully about his music: “When he reveals his own inner life, things look sadly dull.”

Listeners will judge for themselves, but to me Schumann’s verdict seems harsh. Saint-Lubin’s easy, fluent style admits no profundity but his music has considerable charm and some original ideas. He shows resource and imagination not only in writing for the violin (the two unaccompanied pieces are both extremely effective) but also for piano. Even where the piano has the role of accompanist, as in the Salonstücke, its part is full of interest, emerging, in the Grand duo and the Auber Potpourri, as equal partner with the violin, the dialogue between the two most expertly managed.

Anastasia Khitruk and Elizaveta Kopelman are ideal advocates for Saint-Lubin, a well matched duo who clearly enjoy and make the most of the virtuosity, and bring the more expressive passages to life in a graceful, vivacious way. I’d love to hear them in more substantial repertoire from this period – the Mendelssohn F major Sonata or the Schubert Fantasie, perhaps.