It’s an attractive idea: a programme of chamber music by four mutual friends, Robert and Clara Schumann and Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn. Two D minor piano trios anchor the programme – by Fanny and Robert – while salon pieces by Felix and Clara fill out the running time very appealingly, as well as providing brief solo showcases for the London Bridge Trio’s violinist David Adams and cellist Kate Gould.

Everything here is played with sensitivity and conviction. The three players summon up the whirlwind that opens Fanny’s Trio in fine style, and the energy never flags, with a lilting, lifting rhythmic alertness in the two inner movements and a real sense of the mood shifting Sturm und Drang that drives Robert’s Trio. The gradual withdrawal from nervy melancholy to deep inwardness in Robert’s slow movement is impressively managed – inniger Empfindung indeed. And there’s an unforced naturalness – a lack of affectation – about these readings that many will enjoy: a tonal and expressive sweetness without getting sticky that feels just right in Clara’s Romances and Felix’s lollipop of an Op 109.

Sadly, the recorded sound does not flatter these performances. Piano trios are never easy to balance, especially not in a live performance (applause is audible after the two trios but not, oddly, the other works). The acoustic of the new concert hall at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire hasn’t sounded this muddy when I’ve attended in person; more problematically, the piano is simultaneously recessed and over-resonant, giving it a tinny edge and making the strings sound as if they’re having to struggle – even, at times, in the two solo works. A real pity, because there’s a lot here to enjoy.