The Trio Karénine were joint winners (with the Van Baerle Trio) of the 2013 ARD Competition in Munich. They formed as recently as 2009 and the choice of Schumann for their first disc is a bold one. There’s an effervescence and litheness that underpins their approach (not for nothing are they named after Tolstoy’s heroine Anna Karenina, ‘for the life force she represents’).

The Second Trio suits them particularly well. They capture the upward-surging opening of the first movement and the thrilling élan of its close. Yet they don’t underplay the contrasting elements either, for instance, the confiding theme introduced by the piano at 0'50" (tr 5). In the second movement they know better than to overindulge Schumann’s rapturous main theme, though Andsnes’s magically withdrawn accompaniment for the Tetzlaff siblings is even more rapt. The lolloping intermezzo-like third movement, with its canonic conversation between strings and piano, is also very effective, while the finale is a particularly elated affair, the Karénine palpably delighting in Schumann’s flow of melodic invention; their lively sense of interplay and the springiest of accentuation gives even the sparkily multi-hued account by Faust/Queyras/Melnikov a run for its money.

The turbulent First Trio is also full of good things, though I marginally prefer the slightly steadier tempo of Tetzlaff/Andsnes in the gruff Scherzo, giving it a darker hue that then makes the most telling contrast with the Trio. In the slow movement, it is Faust et al who delve deepest, the most sparing use of vibrato giving it a desolation compared to which Trio Karénine are more conventionally beautiful. But the new group convey the energy of the finale with great immediacy, combining a sense of freshness with a deep-seated understanding of Schumann’s world. A most impressive debut