I can’t tell you much about the Trio Zeliha – the biography printed in the booklet (in French only) is more poetic than detailed, and I couldn’t find much online – beyond the fact that they’re young both individually and collectively (the group formed in 2018), seem to be based in France, and have been mentored by the likes of Brendel and the Trio Wanderer. I can, however, report what matters most: they play brilliantly together.

Pianist Jorge González Buajasan is a strong presence in both sound and personality. He’s by far the most emotionally effusive of the three, and seems most willing to take risks. Listen, say, to how freely he shapes the lyrical passage starting at 4'03" in the finale of Mendelssohn’s D minor Trio. Yet he also knows where to speak simply, as it were, as he does so graciously in the opening section of the Andante con moto tranquillo. His technique is unimpeachable, too, whether in the brittlest passages of Shostakovich’s youthful work, where he chisels away as if with an ice pick (at 1'26"), or in the gossamer textures of the Arensky – note, for instance, how charmingly he articulates the exquisite filigree at 7'08" in the first movement.

The strings are tonally well matched. Both violinist Manon Galy and cellist Maxime Quennesson play with a warm, almost velvety sound, as one can hear at the beginning of the Shostakovich. They’re not quite as commanding as González Buajasan, though they’re just as imaginatively expressive – try the very opening of the Arensky, for example, where they levitate over the piano’s gently churning triplets, or to how magically atmospheric their muted tone is in the Adagio.

In terms of ensemble, the Trio Zeliha are impressive, too, and I’m particularly delighted by their meticulous attention to dynamic markings. The scherzos in both the Arensky and Mendelssohn are as dazzling for their delicacy as for their vivacity. The programme is intelligently planned so the three works seem to connect in an illuminating way, and the recorded sound is first-rate. A truly auspicious debut.