Prokofiev: Violin Sonatas; Five Melodies Op 35 BIS

Alina Ibragimova and Steven Osborne made a huge impression in Prokofiev at last year's KBC Great Music in Irish Houses Festival, and they recorded this disc a month later. The First Sonata opens with a movement of brooding blackness, broken by fierce tolling from the depths of the piano and scurrying violin passages, which Prokofiev wanted to sound "like the wind in a graveyard". The Second, arranged with the help of David Oistrakh from a flute sonata, is lighter, altogether more songful. Ibragimova and Osborne play both with an unwavering firmness that's a perfect match for the First, and intriguingly drains some of the sweetness from the Second. The Mélodies, Op 35 bis (originally wordless songs) are also finely done. url.ie/4qdb