In Passacaglia, violinist Pavel Berman and pianist Maria Meerovitch perform two violin sonatas characterised by their contrasting passacaglia finales: Respighi’s Violin Sonata in B minor and Shostakovich’s Violin Sonata in G, Op. 134. Shostakovich’s work was composed for the legendary David Oistrakh, who once owned the violin now played by Berman: a Stradivarius made in Cremona in 1702.

Respighi’s Violin Sonata takes us from a brooding opening to the radiant slow movement and concludes with a powerful, Brahmsian passacaglia. Written towards the end of his life, Shostakovich’s Violin Sonata features virtuoso piano writing and his individual take on 12-tone techniques, with an almost unhinged central movement and ghostly passacaglia to finish.

Born in Moscow, Pavel Berman won the Second Prize in the 1987 Paganini Competition aged 17 and First Prize and the Gold Medal at the 1990 Indianapolis International Violin Competition. Belgian pianist Maria Meerovitch was born in St Petersburg and moved to Belgium though a Yehudi Menuhin Foundation scholarship, after which she won First Prizes at international competitions (Viotti, Italy; Charles Hennen, the Netherlands) and has been performing around the world ever since.