With a little help from the Kungsbacka, the Aquinas are gradually colonising the complete Haydn keyboard trios for Naxos – the first intégrale since the Beaux Arts’ now classic 1970s Philips survey. In the late 18th century the ‘sonata for keyboard with violin and cello accompaniment’, as trios were routinely billed, was the one instrumental arena where women could rule the roost; and Haydn duly dedicated most of his trios to female pianists, amateur or professional. Four of the five works on offer here date from the mid- to late 1780s, when Haydn was being inundated by requests from publishers in London and Vienna. While more modest in scope than the great trios of the 1790s, they are full of ear-catching invention, with close collusion between keyboard and violin and a far from negligible role for the cello. Highlights include No 13’s minor-major ‘double variations’, by turns melancholy and radiant, and the finale of the D major Trio, No 7, where Haydn treats a fetching contredanse melody with typical harmonic sleight of hand.

Haydn lovers should be well satisfied with the performances from the UK-based Aquinas Piano Trio, both in the mature trios and in the slight C major Divertimento from around 1760. In the faster movements pianist Martin Cousin and violinist Ruth Rogers, using vibrato discreetly, balance grace and exuberance, while Katherine Jenkinson adds rhythmic impetus and colour to Haydn’s bass lines. She is also alive to the moments where the cello goes its own way – say in her quickfire sparring with Rogers’s violin in the first-movement development of No 6.

In keeping with trends over the past half-century, the Aquinas usually choose tempos a notch or two quicker than the Beaux Arts. The American group treat No 6’s minuet finale con amore, as a surrogate slow movement, and are more soulfully probing in the opening Adagio of No 5 (where the Aquinas stress Haydn’s non tanto qualification) and the Andante variations of No 7, which the British ensemble treat as a no-nonsense march. Conversely, the Beaux Arts bring more sparkle to the finale of No 13, where the Aquinas sound slightly sober. Both groups are reluctant to add any embellishments on repeats. In this the Aquinas could learn a thing or two from the Gaspard, whose added touches of decoration are such an engaging feature of their series of late Haydn trios for Chandos. But this is a minor gripe. These still little-known works are delightful, subtly crafted music, and the Aquinas deliver them with verve, affection and a sense of shared enjoyment.