The A major Trio was discovered in the 1920s; an anonymous manuscript which can’t be linked directly to Brahms, even though it’s difficult to imagine it being by anyone else. It could well be one of the two trios he referred to in an 1853 letter to Schumann. It’s amiable music, not as striking in its invention as the early B major Trio, Op 8, and has been recorded several times, by the Beaux Arts Trio among others.

The Guarneri Trio play both works in a confident, direct manner. Where the music demands it, there’s no lack of power and energy, and all three players sustain a rich, full tone in Brahms’s expansive melodies. I do find, however, a lack of variety and flexibility in the way they respond to the music. They take note of the marked dynamic changes but there’s little light and shade or individuality in the way each phrase is shaped.

Turning for comparison in the C major Trio to Nicolas Angelich and the Capuçon brothers, I was struck by how, in the Scherzo, they create a tense atmosphere, proceeding anxiously on tiptoe; the Guarneri Trio match them as regards articulation and ensemble but sound heavier and less memorable. Angelich and his colleagues establish more clearly the character of the first movement’s various themes and, in the Andante, give each of the variations its own sonority; in the Guarneri account such contrasts are much less apparent. In this complex, multifaceted work, I’d always choose the more searching interpretation.