Biondi brings his long experience in Baroque violin to these readings, radically different from the usual Romantically-inspired renditions of these sonatas…Biondi’s touch is lighter (his ornaments are balletic); his sound a clean bel canto. Expressive devices are subtler, too, while responsive to Paganini’s quixotic moods…Their approach is that of equal partners enjoying intimate chamber music (even if, occasionally, the guitar sounds a little shy in the balance).

There’s an extent to which all I need to say here is ‘Go and buy it’, because even before the first three bars are out you’ll be happy that you did…The first thing to say is that the instruments themselves feel absolutely spot-on…and are played with an effortlessly singing mellifluousness and nonchalant virtuosity…An indisputable cracker.

Recorded in Valencia in a seductively warm and open acoustic using the original manuscripts and roughly contemporary instruments – a 1767 Gagliano violin and an 1825 French guitar made by Mauchant Frères – Fabio Biondi and Giangiacomo Pinardi create the uncanny impression of two friends making music in the late evening for the sheer pleasure of it. Technically immaculate and musically exquisite, it is difficult to imagine this enchanting music better played or engineered.