release This new coupling by Bruno Monteiro and João Paulo Santos of Strauss’s Violin Sonata with the D minor work by Saint-Saëns makes a fascinating comparison with the Tasmin Little/Piers Lane coupling of the Strauss with Respighi, so different in its forward impulse. Little and Lane play the Strauss Sonata in a comparatively restrained way, yet still full of Romantic emotional feeling in the early movements, followed by an agitato finale. Their warmly affectionate lyrical style, full of a natural spontaneity, recalls Strauss’s own recitals with his wife, Pauline. This yearning delicacy of impetus, with its moments of sheer passion and virtuosity, is quite different from Monteiro’s approach, so full of verve and boldness, echoed by his pianist, and tending to sweep listeners off their feet. A similar difference is felt in the playing of the couplings, just as diverse in character.

Saint-Saëns’s First Violin Sonata was a complete surprise to me – as played here, quite unlike the piano concertos. In his day, Saint-Saëns was regarded as France’s greatest composer; and listening to this two-movement sonata, with its powerful, thrustful outer sections, one can understand why, and can appreciate why the composer’s compatriots were bowled over by such compulsive writing.

Again, the difference in Little’s alternative coupling of Respighi’s rhapsodic Violin Sonata and the charmingly lightweight Six Pieces is striking, especially when they are so beautifully played, with fine support from Lane. So choice between these two discs is difficult to make: they both have many of their own virtues.