An internationally praised pianist and the violinist who leads the Australian String Quartet playing together in recital is surely an unbeatable combination to light up a cold Canberra winter afternoon.

Daniel de Borah and Kristian Winther will play three significant works of the chamber music repertoire when they give a concert at Wesley Music Centre on July 7: Mozart's Sonata for Violin and Piano in G major, K.301; Prokofiev's Sonata No. 2 for Violin and Piano in D major, Op. 94a and Beethoven's Sonata for Violin and Piano in A major Op. 47, the famous Kreutzer.

Both musicians were born in Canberra and trained at the Canberra School of Music.

''But it wasn't until last year that Kristian and I first played together when I toured Australia with the Australian String Quartet,'' de Borah says. ''From the first rehearsal it was clear to me that this was a musician I wanted to work with more closely.''

Winther says, ''We played the Shostakovich Piano Quintet together on that national tour. And after that Daniel was our guest artist at our Dunkeld Festival in Victoria. We get on well together.''

Soon plans for some duo concerts were in place.

What determined the ambitious program for their upcoming concert?

''We decided on this particular program because Daniel is very keen on Russian music and I've always wanted to play the Prokofiev sonata,'' Winther says.

''After playing the Shostakovich together we really wanted to continue the Russian theme,'' de Borah says, ''so our programs have grown from that germ.''

He thinks that the three works are linked by their varied approaches to classicism, ''from the archetypal classical composer, Mozart, through Beethoven, who sought to break the classical bounds, to Prokofiev, who found in them the ideal framework for his modern language.''

De Borah not only studied at the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest and the Royal Academy of Music in London but also at the Saint Petersburg Conservatoire, so his knowledge of Russian repertoire is extensive.

''Prokofiev is definitely a favourite of mine. I find his music very refreshing … a master craftsman,'' he says.

This sonata was originally written for flute and piano but the great Soviet violinist David Oistrakh persuaded Prokofiev to arrange the work for violin.

Winther says that the two musicians were friends who originally met through chess - not music. ''They once played a series of chess matches and the loser had to give a concert,'' he says.

Beethoven's Kreutzer sonata has a fascinating history and has been treated in many ways. On their November 2010 tour, the ACO played an arrangement for chamber orchestra by Richard Tognetti with the three movements interspersed with a dramatic portrayal by two actors of Leo Tolstoy's novella. This was then contrasted with a similar representation of Janacek's work of the same name.

Is this a valid treatment of a great work?

De Borah feels that great musical works speak for themselves and it's not necessary to find alternative ways to appreciate them. However, ''there are an infinite number of valid approaches to music making - that's the wonderful thing about it!'' he says. ''The important thing is that the music is always treated with the respect it deserves.''

Winther believes that the Kreutzer is ''the ultimate violin sonata''. ''In fact, it's barely a sonata at all - Beethoven called it a concerto,'' he says. ''The whole lineage of it - the sonata and then the book by Tolstoy and then Janacek wrote the piece based on the Tolstoy novel - so there was a sort of chain-reaction of creativity.''

To de Borah, this sonata is ''a truly grandiose piece replete with all the struggle and heroics we associate with middle-period Beethoven on the grandest scale.''

And how does the Mozart sonata fit with these two works?

''We needed something just that little bit calmer,'' Winther says. ''This two-movement sonata is serene and crystalline. I haven't played it for about 10 years now and it will be nice to come back to it.''

De Borah says, ''In this context, Mozart's concise G major sonata acts as something of an aperitif.''

Both musicians say they are looking forward to performing in Canberra.

''It's always a pleasure to return to the city where I grew up,'' de Borah says, ''and all the more so to share music with family and old friends.''

Winther says, ''I was born in Canberra but we went to Hong Kong very soon after. I'm just looking forward to playing in Canberra again.''