A couple of years ago I was much impressed by an account of Catoire’s Piano Quintet led by Bengt Forsberg with a characterful line-up of string players on BIS. Now comes a second recording, this time with an established string quartet, the Vogler, together with pianist Oliver Triendl, who has long been a champion of the more obscure corners of the repertoire. This work, dating from 1914, is firmly in the Romantic tradition – Catoire was a pupil of Rimsky-Korsakov and Liadov. And it’s one of those pieces that needs an injection of imagination in order to be fully appreciated. Unfortunately I found this new account comparatively staid compared to the one on BIS: in the first movement, for instance, Triendl and the Vogler are less rhapsodic than Forsberg and friends, and some of the climaxes sound somewhat effortful. The Vogler’s viola player is also more shy about seizing the limelight in the subtly textured opening of the Andante, while the E flat major section (from 2'14") is a degree less contrasted to what has gone before. The finale, while technically unimpeachable, again makes less of the contrasting moods that brought the music alive in the hands of Forsberg et al.

The Piano Quartet, from two years later, is a fascinating piece, and more assuredly individual than the Quintet. At times it demonstrates a kind of Scriabinesque restlessness, with chromatically moving lines and a refusal to resolve harmonically. There are also some striking textures, not least some moments of almost Ravelian deliquescence in the second and third movements. These are slightly underplayed in this new account, which sounds a tad earnest; in the outer movements they are not helped by steadier tempos than in the delightful recording by Room-Music led by pianist Stephen Coombs. But this is a work that certainly deserves to get out more.

The most successful performance on this album is the Piano Concerto, which probably dates from 1906 09, though opinions vary. Here Triendl is entirely at home with the work’s mix of the grandeur of Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto with an iridescence reminiscent of Debussy’s youthful Fantaisie for piano and orchestra. Roland Kluttig is an expert partner-in-crime, getting the pacing just right and allowing Triendl to shine in passages such as the first movement’s lyrically surging piano melody (from 5'48") to which the winds are added to subtle effect, as well as in the quiet grandeur of the Andante cantabile. The finale, too, has a pleasing degree of brilliance, right down to its irresistibly affirmative ending, with the triangle allowed just the right degree of prominence.