These performances exhibit that feeling of spontaneous enjoyment which animated Ibragimova and Tiberghien’s live Beethoven set from the Wigmore Hall (8/10, 12/10, 7/11). Their playing is constantly graced by small touches of rubato, never very much but enough to give a sense of freedom and individuality to each phrase. The early sonatas benefit especially from strong characterisation; the quick mood-changes in the first movement of D408 are caught in a delightfully precise, vivid manner. The fine performances recorded by Julia Fischer and Martin Helmchen are by comparison more straightforward – less fun than the new version but benefiting from Fischer’s warm, expressive tone and, at a slower tempo, bringing out more strongly the melancholy of D385’s first movement. At the start of D574, however, Tiberghien and Ibragimova perfectly combine emphasis on the movement’s lyricism with the sense of Schubert’s Allegro moderato.

Alina Ibragimova is not afraid to play very quietly. The effect can be magical – at the start of the Fantasie, for instance. But listening to the whole set, I feel I’d welcome more passages of full, unconstrained expression, certainly when Schubert hasn’t marked her part pianissimo. I have to admit, though, that these tenuous passages sound beautiful and touching.

The performances of the virtuoso Rondo brillant and Fantasie are exhilarating; the Rondo combining lively momentum with a sense of poise and the Fantasie beautifully characterised in all its varied aspects. Especially fine are the episode in Hungarian style, full of energy and grace, and the barnstorming finale, rivalling the famous 1931 recording of Busch and Serkin.