The superlative quality of the “Decca sound” certainly hasn’t hurt the ensemble’s fresh and characterful articulation, but this was recorded on their home turf at the Melbourne Recital Centre so we can claim this as our own. Chalabi has always impressed with his finely nuanced singing lines and he and Delbridge combine almost telepathically. Williams is a very fine violist, with excellent intonation and always ready to take over the steering wheel when needed.

Murphy is the perfect fit on this double bill of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. Debussy and Ravel are very much the Cav and Pag of the chamber music world, joined at the hip but none the lesser for that – but on the downside it does mean that there is an enormous and very strong field of recordings in which this disc is competing.

It’s hard to find a weakness in either performance, however.
If anything the Ravel is the stronger – Tinalley really captures the poetry as well as all those shimmering colours and textures. If you were only to have one recording of these two lovely works you couldn’t go wrong with this charmer from a top-notch Australian ensemble.