Very few 20th-century pieces have entered the canon of literature for violin and piano as universally as the Mythes of Karol Szymanowski. Alongside the sonatas of Janáček and Prokofiev, for example, the cycle embodies the style of its composer at his most characteristic.

In Szymanowski’s case, the Mythes draw on a sensuous language of impressionism but also a Russian school of violin playing, and a fragrance in the melodies that is unique to him.

Italian critics have been extravagant in their praise of Francesca Bonaita. Her repertoire already includes modern classics such as the concertos by Barber, Zimmermann and Schnittke, indicating the kind of affinity with modernist idioms which makes this Szymanowski disc so striking as a demonstration of her musicianship.

Having graduated from the conservatoire in Milan as a student of Sergei Krylov, she furthered her studies in Lugano while attracting notice for her performances in many international violin competitions.

The pianist Saskia Giorgini is well known as a Lisztian, with several outstanding albums to her credit, and as a sympathetic recital partner to outstanding musicians of our day such as Ian Bostridge and Vilde Frang.

The duo have written a note for this new album of Szymanowski which both explains the background to each of the major works – the Mythes, the early Sonata and the composer’s late transcriptions of three Paganini caprices – while underlining their intellectual grasp of this music as it falls under their fingers.

As they note, Szymanowski was initially inspired by the examples of Franck and Brahms in writing his own, opulent Violin Sonata in 1909. Gradually he found his voice, helped along the way in particular by his friendship with the violinist Pavel Kochanski. It was Kochanski who gave both technical advice and inspiration to Szymanowski as he composed the two violin concertos and the trio of Mythes which are his culminating work in the field of chamber music: ‘a mystical synthesis of the sensual and the divine’, as they encapsulate its elusive sequence of moods.