The Schubert Ensemble again demonstrate their devotion to the masterworks of 19th-century chamber music with this recording of Brahms’s Piano Quintet. In a slightly unfocused acoustic, these players bring out the work’s ruminative side; compare, for example, the Award-winning recording by Andsnes and the Artemis Quartet, who stress the propulsive character of the work, screwing up its tension until the very end. There’s a sense that the Schubert Ensemble hold back in the work’s outer movements, rather than pushing forward as do their rivals. This pays dividends in the slow movement, played somewhat literally at the outset but developing into a most touching reading by the time the opening music returns. The contrasts in the Scherzo between the foreboding opening and the exultant second idea are softened here in comparison to Andsnes/Artemis and there is some loss of ensemble in the tricky cross-rhythms between piano and strings. But there is more than one way to skin a hedgehog and it’s instructive to hear a contrasting interpretation of a much-loved work. Mention must be made of viola player Douglas Paterson, whose musical intelligence adds greatly to this performance.

No indication is given to explain why the Quintet is issued more than eight years after it was recorded and it may seem a touch apologetic that the filler is not another chamber work but four of Brahms’s late piano Intermezzos. Although beautifully played (in 2007) by William Howard and pushing the disc well over the 60-minute mark, it gives the impression that the disc is something of an afterthought – which does scant justice to the performances it contains.