Having already given us excellent versions of Josef Bohuslav Foerster’s string quartets and violin concertos (10/08), Supraphon now treats us to three fine works that are separated by no less than 40 years. Both the First (1883) and Second Piano Trios are reminiscent of Grieg (the First was dedicated to him and earned its composer an enthusiastic response), but it’s the Second that shines a brighter light on an individual talent, with the predictable shadow of Smetana casting its presence principally through a strain of tragedy that infiltrates the slow finale. Foerster had recently lost his sister Marie, just as Smetana had lost his daughter prior to writing his Trio. The second movement also admits certain Brahmsian elements – particularly in the piano-writing – but there’s little doubt that by 1894 Foerster had found his own voice and was using it well.

Twenty-eight years later he penned his Third and last trio, an often craggy work that he dedicated to a friend who was also founder of the local Smetana Society in Ji∂ín. By then the Romantic aspect of Foerster’s style was vying with a more cerebral element, though the emotional peaks and troughs of the slow movement recall parallel episodes in the earlier trios. It’s an accomplished piece but were I to single out one trio for inclusion in an all-Czech programme (alongside, say, Dvo∑ák and Smetana), it would be the Second, a significant achievement that deserves wider currency. The Janá∂ek Trio offer committed, well-judged performances, though the leader’s intonation slips momentarily towards the close of the Third Trio. The recorded sound is extremely well balanced.