The cellist Sol Gabetta and pianist Bertrand Chamayou are far from the first duo to record Mendelssohn’s complete works for cello and piano, but they bring to them an ease and freshness that makes this new set very rewarding. Gabetta’s cello soars through Mendelssohn’s long melodies, in conversation with the buoyant but mellow tone of Chamayou’s mid-19th-century fortepiano. That softer keyboard sound doesn’t lead to any loss of definition: on the contrary, those restless, rippling accompaniments seem to bounce from Chamayou’s fingers, clear and transparent.

The five works are presented in chronological order, finishing with the Op 109 Song Without Words. Then comes the second part of Gabetta’s Mendelssohn project: responses to that piece from four other composers. Heinz Holliger contributes three tiny, Webern-like movements that continue a set of Songs Without Words that he wrote years ago for violin and piano. Francisco Coll’s Dialog ohne Worte packs an expansive punch into its few minutes; it’s a world away from the second of Wolfgang Rihm’s two miniatures, a haunting lullaby almost too delicate to be played. But the composer who plays the game the most stylishly is Jörg Widmann, his homage an aptly Romantic, bittersweet duet which flies off into pieces only to be put uneasily back together again.