These three discs recorded by The Brahms Trio are sure to make some listeners ask: ‘What is Russian in this music?’ The answer is: not a lot. The chamber writing is expertly done but it belongs to a kind of international European style, and if there is any local tinge, it is Italian opera. Even though this music did not advance the cause of Russian nationalist music, there are some real gems here that really ought to belong to the standard repertoire. This all-star trio of Russian virtuosos present the music stylishly but in a self-effacing way. They are sensitive to all the subtleties but they can also deliver the grander passages with aplomb.

Vol 1 begins with the two trios of Alexander Alabiev, a composer with a colourful biography. Born in Siberia, he joined the army and participated in the historic defeat of Napoleon’s Grande Armée, which was driven back the whole way to Paris. Back in Russia, he was involved in a fight with a cheat in a card game who later died of his injuries. The incident resulted in Alabiev’s exile back to his hometown in Siberia, which undermined his prospects of international fame. Nevertheless, his song ‘The Nightingale’ became highly popular in Europe thanks to the singer Pauline Viardot. The trios show us what an accomplished composer he was, the A minor being particularly compelling. In the finale, Alabiev adopted a song style that was recognisably Russian in his day. The sensual vibrato of the string players is supported by the pianist’s delicate touch, and the very large recording venue is skilfully shrunk to suggest a more intimate ambience.

Mikhail Glinka’s Trio can also be played with clarinet and bassoon but it is lovingly presented here with the standard piano-trio line-up. The slow movement, in particular, contains some magical moments of conversation between the instruments. The slow movement of Anton Rubinstein’s G minor Trio (No 2) is another highlight in the recording, with its evocative textures and its almost improvised feel, a peaceful oasis among the surrounding movements, which are ambitious and virtuoso. Rubinstein’s massive oeuvre still awaits rediscovery, not least because he was marginalised in Russia by the composers of The Mighty Handful, who did not consider him a true Russian.

Vol 2 pairs the familiar Tchaikovsky with a composer who has almost disappeared from view: Pavel Pabst. Both of these trios were written in memory of Rubinstein and close on a funereal note, although in the Pabst the funeral march is added as a coda to a contrasting finale. Despite this abruptly tragic ending to an otherwise life-affirming piece, there is much to admire in the Pabst Trio: the themes are fresh, the textures vivid and there are touches of adventurous harmony. The performance of the Tchaikovsky Trio is at the reserved end of the spectrum but it wins us over through its intimate tone, and there is plenty of colour and crisp textures in the second-movement variations.

In Vol 3 we finally reach The Mighty Handful but, surprisingly, this music sounds even less Russian than the earlier pieces. In his unfinished D major Trio, we encounter the young Borodin before he had formulated his Russian style. The slow movement is beautiful and memorable, and could easily have been written by Mendelssohn. The middle-aged Rimsky-Korsakov had already worked through the Russian style and had grown tired of it, so he wanted to try something new in his C minor Trio. Stylistically, it is a fascinatingly cosmopolitan mix of everything that had been ruled out in his nationalist years. One important strand in this work is the lyricism of Tchaikovsky, who was considered more European than Russian by The Mighty Handful. Rimsky-Korsakov left the finale unfinished, and it was completed by his student Maximilian Steinberg. The resulting movement is disproportionately long, and crammed with diverse material. It is all the more impressive that The Brahms Trio manage to make this problem movement sound convincing. If anything, the Rimsky-Korsakov is the highlight of the whole set, and a true testimony to The Brahms Trio’s intelligent and passionate music-making. After this, there is a charming bagatelle by César Cui, written for his Belgian patron, the pianist Comtesse de Mercy-Argenteau, and here again the playing is very stylish, highlighting the gorgeous sweetness of the strings.

The Brahms Trio have taken us on a journey that is both an education and a pleasure. It is impossible not to admire their commitment and we must look forward to the next instalment.