One of the benefits of being a critic is that I hear lots of music that it wouldn't occur to me to seek out. I can't tell you how many composers I've "discovered" that way, composers whose work I knew only vaguely. When I am obliged to sit through a piece I don't know well, I frequently add its composer to my "must explore" list.

In the case of Carl Nielsen, I've never doubted his importance, but I've never explored his music systematically, as I have that of his contemporary, Sibelius. Perhaps that will be a retirement project.

In the meantime here is a CD of two Nielsen sonatas for violin and piano and two substantial works for solo violin, exceedingly worthy entries in the the violin and violin-and-piano repertoires. Rich, complex, and highly individual, they are neverthelss entirely listenable, at least when played with the skill and conviction that Demertzis Asteriadou bring to them.

Both sonatas are in the traditional three-movemnt fast-slow-fast layout and are freely tonal. The Opus 9 is basically in A, but its excursions into other modalities stretch the bounds of the key. The Opus 35, though still tonal, is not bound to any specific key for long. Yet it is unlikely to strike today's listeners as difficult, except perhaps for the performers.

If the sonatas belong in the standard recital repertoire, the unaccompanied pieces are even more worthy. Nielsen was himself a violinist and understood the instrument's acoustics and potential wonderfully.

The Prelude and Theme with Variations is the more immediately likeable as it is based on a familiar tune (which I can't quite place) but the Prelude and Presto is the more abstract and satisfying. Both pieces, aside from requiring the greatest technical skill from the performer, exploit the instrument's capabilities so thoroughly that one is tempted to rate them with the great solo works of Paganini and, in some ways, even Bach.

Demertzis plays them for all they're worth, and no lover of the violin should miss this CD.