The Smetana Trio needs no introduction – it’s one of those ensembles whose historical reputation is such that it changes its players rather than its name, rather in the way of the Beaux Arts Trio. Cellist Jan Pálenicek is the senior member here and, appropriately enough, son of founding pianist Josef Pálenicek. How refreshing to hear Mendelssohn’s First Trio coupled not with the C minor but with Schubert’s Second.

With a flurry of recordings in the run-up to Mendelssohn’s anniversary last year, this new one faces tough competition, above all from the Fischer/Müller-Schott/Gilad reading, strong on vitality and interactive zeal. The Smetana’s reading of the D minor Trio is forthright and strongly soloistic but the strings are so forwardly balanced that the piano can sometimes seem recessive. It’s an interpretation full of incident: the opening movement is less a single sweep than a series of episodes. But, despite all that incident, the group doesn’t feel like a particularly integrated ensemble (just sample the oddly dispassionate duet between violin and viola from 5'40" on track 1, or the opening of the finale). The slow movement sounds a tad portentous too; at a degree or two faster the Florestan and Fischer et al are much more convincing. And the Smetana’s Scherzo is hardly elfin, though at least it doesn’t suffer from the technical shortcomings of Mutter’s pianist.

There’s something else in short supply on this set: charm. It’s very easy for a modern piano to sound overbearing in the opening of Schubert’s E flat Trio, and the Smetana’s, alas, does. As for the slow movement, again it drags its heels, leading to melodic lines that sound slightly self-conscious: the Florestan lead the way here, while for fervency shot through with charm, you’d be hard set to better the Capuçon Trio. Overall, then, not performances to alter the current hierarchy of classic recordings.