The sisters comprising The Lee Trio are violinist Lisa Lee, cellist Angela Lee and pianist Melinda Lee Masur, who appear to dismiss any hint of sibling rivalry. They share phrases with loving attention to detail and balance even as they celebrate the varied conversations in the music at hand(s).

The ensemble’s new album highlights this special artistic intimacy in works from the 19th and 21st centuries, the former represented by a beloved master, Schumann, and the latter by two figures who may be new to many listeners, Finnish composer Uljas Pulkkis and British composer Edmund Finnis. The juxtaposition of old and new music is as seamless as The Lee Trio’s playing.

It becomes immediately apparent why the recording is titled ‘Midsummer Night Magic’ as the Lee musicians immerse themselves in the titular first movement of Pulkkis’s Fern Flowers (2015). Darting lines and sunny sonorities pervade the activity, which gives way to poetic warmth in ‘The Vision’ and joyful and robust tripping of the light fantastic in the ‘Fern Flower Dance’.

Finnis’s Five Trios (2019) declares no programmatic intentions, instead evoking a panoply of dreamy atmospheres and interactions that fulfil the magical nature of the album’s mission. The trios are compact, captivating and mostly quiet, and the Lee players suspend each narrative through utmost concentration and precision.

The two Schumann pieces hail from the 1840s, a period of creative fertility, touring demands and mental turmoil for the composer. Both the Fantasiestücke, Op 88 (1842), and Piano Trio No 2 in F, Op 80 (1847), find Schumann in characteristic lyrical, hearty form, providing players with ample opportunity to engage in a series of close encounters. The third movement of the Fantasiestücke is a prime example of the composer’s expressive individuality, a tender duet for violin and cello over undulating piano lines. The Lee sisters apply equal amounts of intensity and delicacy to Schumann’s ardent, charming and buoyant soundscapes. Their organic artistic approach is the product of like artistic minds, and perhaps an intuitive sensibility rooted in familial unity. However the Lees forged these performances, they are eminently worthwhile.