A sense of discovery is a key theme in the third ECM recital of sisters Natascia and Raffaella Gazzana. Alongside a landscape of French music for violin and piano, drawing on a multiplicity of inspirations, the album includes a premiere recording of György Ligeti’s 1946 Duo (dedicated to Kurtág, and influenced by Hungarian and Rumanian folk music).

Duo Gazzana plays one of the most popular violin sonatas in the repertoire, César Franck’s epic A major Sonata of 1886, and one that’s little-known, Maurice Ravel’s Sonate posthume, written in 1897, when its composer was just 22. The album concludes with Olivier Messiaen’s Thème et variations of 1932, a work which in some aspects prefigures the Quatuor pour la fin du temps.

The Italian sisters’ performances of Ravel, Franck, Ligeti and Messiaen were recorded at Lugano’s Auditorio Stelio Molo RSI in March 2017 and produced by Manfred Eicher.