Called simply Fantasy, this new CD from Stone Records collects together the thoughts of three very different composers on the subject – Messiaen, Schoenberg, and Schubert. Centre stage on the disc is Schubert’s Fantasie, D934, Op 159. This was the first work that violinist Kaoru Yamada and pianist Sholto Kynoch, director of the Oxford Lieder Festival, played together as students nearly a decade ago: the rapport that has developed between them is immediately obvious on this CD. The performance brings out both the freedom and the rigour of this much-loved work, with quite a bit of firm emphasis on the rigour. But the sheer beauty of the music is everywhere apparent too, with Yamada holding a most tender line in the opening Andante, and some featherlike fun from both players in the variations. This performance bears repeated listening – and you can also hear it live, when the same artists play the work at the Holywell Music Room on April 10.

Messiaen’s song La Mort du Nombre also features in the Holywell concert. On the CD, it is included as the first of three Messiaen songs, ending with his Fantaisie. Written in 1930 for the unusual combination of violin, piano, soprano, and tenor, La Mort is based on a dialogue between two souls, represented by the two voices. On the CD, recorded in the Jacqueline du Pré Music Room, engineer Julian Millard effectively uses the acoustic to distance the soprano soul (Rhona McKail) from the tenor soul (Nicky Spence). The Thème et variations which follows displays undisguised yearning and tenderness, while in Messiaen’s Fantaisie, Yamada and Kynoch tellingly bring out the contrasts between the dramatically angular and the ethereal. Finally, the exemplary clarity of both sound recording and playing on this CD provides an excellent opportunity to dissect Schoenberg’s complex, abstract Phantasy, which looks forward to 12-tone music, and also backwards to Brahms.