Shostakovich’s wartime Second Trio, such a powerful work, gets a splendid performance. From the opening, with its contrapuntal lines of unusual contrasting timbres and register, to the finale’s alternation of fierce passion with sinister mechanical progressions, the Smetana players know just what to do for maximum effect. The manic scherzo is notable for its rhythmic vitality and clear articulation, its syncopations sounding truly disruptive, and the finale’s Allegretto tempo is sustained with admirable firmness. The passacaglia third movement brings playing of intense expression from the violin and cello. I’m not entirely sure about the touches of rubato, however; maintaining exact rhythm here would, I feel, enhance the movement’s implacable character.

The First Trio was written when Shostakovich was 17: cast as an ambitiously extended single movement, it’s astonishingly assured. There are only occasional pointers to his more mature music – the predominating style is of post-Rachmaninov romanticism. Jitka Cˇechová makes the most of the grand-style pianism, and altogether this is a most convincing performance.

The Ravel, too, is given a large-scale performance but I’m not sure that the work isn’t better served by playing where the emphasis is more on clarity and delicacy. This is the case with the recording by Frank Braley and the Capuçon brothers, Braley being more sparing in his use of the pedal, and the French strings generally producing a lighter tone than their Czech counterparts. But the Smetana Trio respond most beautifully to Ravel’s more sensuous passages and give us a real sense of the work’s breadth and emotional range.