Mr. Kanneh-Mason is a gifted, sensitive artist. And in the demanding works this duo performed — especially Rachmaninoff’s rhapsodic and teeming Sonata in G Minor, which has a virtuosic piano part — Ms. Kanneh-Mason was a superb collaborator.

The program, available in its entirety at wqxr.org, opened with Beethoven’s 12 Variations on “Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen.” The jaunty theme comes from Papageno’s song in Mozart’s “The Magic Flute,” in which the rustic bird catcher explains that what he wants most in life is a loving wife. From the first statement of the theme in Beethoven’s jolly arrangement, Mr. Kanneh-Mason brought out the wistful subtext of the music, the yearning and loneliness the character feels, with rich, focused tone and elegant phrasing. As the variations grew in intricacy and inventiveness, these impressive musicians responded with crisp stylishness.

They then gave an intense account of Lutoslawski’s aptly titled “Grave,” a kind of argumentative dialogue that opens with a searching, fragmented theme for cello, which Mr. Kanneh-Mason played with grim beauty. This brooding piece, dotted with skittish, mysterious outbursts for both cello and piano, has a distressed and confused quality, well conveyed here.

By contrast, Barber’s Opus 6 Sonata, written when its composer was 22, is a forthright, dynamic and impassioned work. Yet while conveying the soaring lyricism and flinty harmonic vitality of the music, these players teased out the unsettled urgency that runs through the score — even the glowing slow movement, with its fantastical middle section.

Though these charismatic young artists received a prolonged ovation, they played no encore. What they’d already done in this small space was statement enough.

Sheku and Isata Kanneh-Mason

Performed on Wednesday at Weill Recital Hall, Manhattan.