Not known as a musical iconoclast, poor old Weber, it seems, had a hard time getting these works accepted, if we are to believe the reaction of his publishers. The Piano Quartet, according to them, exhibited a “wanton confusion in the arrangement of its ideas”, and worse, imitated the “bizarreries” of Beethoven. The Six Violin Sonatas were a commission for a collection of short pieces of moderate difficulty for the domestic market. It’s never easy for a classy musician to “dumb down” and Weber sweated blood over what he described as a “swine of a job”. In the end they were rejected, according to the composer, “on the splendid grounds that they’re too good and they ought to be much duller”. Both sets were eventually taken on by a more enlightened publisher and here we have a rare opportunity to hear them played by as first rate a set of chamber musicians as you could hope for in this day and age.

Isabelle Faust and Alexander Melnikov won awards left right and centre for their complete Beethoven Violin Sonatas a couple of years ago and it’s fair to say they bring an unprecedented grace and sophistication to these Weber sonatas....