As Beethoven did in the Fourth Piano Concerto four years earlier, so he does in Op 97; the pianist sets the mood, now with a lofty eight-bar theme rising from piano to forte and grounded in a resonantly chorded bass-line. For the Cropper-Welsh-Roscoe Trio, moderation in pacing underscores this Allegro moderato, Martin Roscoe using varying degrees of pressure on the chords to support an affectively inflected melody; and inflected differently for the exposition repeat, thus offering an alternative view. The Scherzo, and its Trio in two sharply contrasted parts, are reiterated too (not everyone does so), exposing the stature of a movement that doesn’t offer conventional light relief. Expressive penetration is deep, and gets deeper in the Andante cantabile. Beethoven’s piano-writing in these four variations and coda anticipates the tranquillity within changing rhythmic patterns heard in the Arietta of his last piano sonata Op 111, and Roscoe, his grasp of structure absolute, leads his partners in an interpretation of rarefied transcendence that also exalts the whole work.

Personal rapport is close and the recording reflects a just balance within the ensemble. Though Op 1 No 1 is less ambitious in scope and sparer of texture, it has a confidence within its own scale that isn’t slighted by these musicians. Again they shape the gravity of the slow movement and weight the finale, modestly rhetorical here but redoubtably so in Op 97. Beethoven described the work as a Grand Trio. So it is in this performance; ducal too.