Minerva Piano Trio 

SOMM

New arrangements of Stravinsky's Pulcinella and Ravel's Daphnis et Chloé bookend this attractive album. Welcome additions to the repertory, both wear their new garb seductively. The Overture to the former, more romantically responsive than neoclassical, suggests the priorities of these players. Violinist Michał Ćwiżewicz is lyrically sweet-toned while pianist Annie Yim is evidently more interested in delineated sonorities and elegance of touch than percussive attack or gratuitous gesture. Daphnis, which she describes as ‘the discovery of love: innocence, awakening, touch and passion’, releases veins of fantasy and heady evocation, adding up to a compelling reading. Far from routine translation, this is a transcription of nuanced and imaginative creativity.

Three accessible contemporary offerings complete the programme: cellist and composer Richard Birchall's effectively contained four-movement Contours (2014), where everyone has something to say; Annie Yim's clever arrangement of Caroline Shaw's Gustave Le Gray (2012, originally for piano), based on Chopin's A minor Mazurka Op 17/4; and Cheryl Frances-Hoad's quintessentially distinctive My Fleeting Angel (2005), drawing on a short story by Sylvia Plath.

These are clear, crafted performances in high quality sound captured by Adaq Khan at London's Menuhin Hall. Recommended.