Schubert: Arpeggione Sonata; Brahms: 3 Intermezzi Op 117; Cello Sonata No 1; Mendelssohn: Song without Words Op 109, Antonio Meneses (cello), Maria João Pires (piano), review This programme, recorded live at London's Wigmore Hall in January last year, brought together the remarkable artistry of the Portuguese pianist Maria João Pires and her regular cellist partner, the Brazilian Antonio Meneses. That they speak the same language, musically as well as verbally, is fully manifest in the intimate, conversational nature of the playing, the way in which ideas are shared and shaped instinctively. They begin with the A Minor Sonata that Schubert wrote in 1824 for the newly invented arpeggione, an instrument that went out of fashion before it had time to make further headway. These days, the sonata is adopted by viola players and cellists, and, high though it sometimes lies for the cello, Meneses's timbre is beautifully consistent in its warmth and security. The central Adagio finds Meneses and Pires communing with particular eloquence, with the span of the cello's long lines delicately supported by telling harmonic touches in the piano's accompaniment. But all three movements testify to their sensitivity to the music's scale and expressive vocabulary. Brahms's First Cello Sonata balances the Schubert at the end of the recital proper, followed by an exquisite encore of a cello and piano arrangement of the aria from Bach's organ Pastorale BWV590. In the Brahms Sonata, as in the Op 117 Intermezzi that Pires plays on her own at the recital's centre, she taps her resources of power, limpidity and inwardness to magical effect. Meneses meets her with a complementary mix, the two finding a common but uncommonly compelling voice for Brahms's passion, assertiveness and serenity. Mendelssohn's Song without Words Op 109 encapsulates all the elevated qualities that make the disc so special.