How prescient of Schumann to designate many of his sets of domestic chamber miniatures for a choice of instruments. Not only did such a contingency enhance their saleability during his lifetime but it has continued to increase the repertoire pool for players eager to play the finest music available to them.

All the same, Christmas comes early for those who love these intimate products of Schumann’s arch-Romantic sensibility, as a leading oboist, clarinettist and viola player issue almost simultaneous recordings of similar and overlapping selections. Thus clarinettist Julian Bliss borrows the oboe Romanzen, Op 94, oboist Nicholas Daniel and viola player Maxim Rysanov co-opt the clarinet Fantasiestücke, Op 73, and all three adapt the horn (or violin or cello) Adagio und Allegro, Op 70. A triptych of Volkston pieces transfer seamlessly to the oboe, as do three pieces for pedal piano in Howard Ferguson’s skilful arrangements, while both Daniel and Bliss essay Clara’s harmonically oblique and richly atmospheric Op 22 Romanzen – and Bliss puts in a cameo in Rysanov’s Op 132 Märchenerzählungen. Such versatility on the composer’s part additionally licenses players to make their own arrangements of selections of songs, at once bulking out their programmes but also demonstrating how Schumann’s – and indeed Clara’s – instrumental idiom flows ineluctably from their skill as song-writers.

Nicholas Daniel is now a leading elder statesman among oboists, and his technical command – not least unparalleled breath control – and consistency of tone across the instrument’s range combine in performances of high artistry and complete authority. His younger colleagues are no less accomplished in their respective programmes, Bliss exulting in the outgoing ring of his clarinet, Rysanov a consoling, confiding presence, especially compelling in the dark lower reaches of the viola’s range. All players enjoy near-telepathic rapport with their respective piano partners: Rysanov’s relationship with South Korean pianist Dasol Kim appears to be the newest of these pairings but they respond to each other as instinctively as the longer-standing couplings of Bliss and Baillieu, and – a partnership going back more than 40 years – Daniel and Drake. Each of these three sequences provides immense pleasure, and the musicianship on display by three contrasting personalities on dissimilar instruments means that a choice between them is somewhat beside the point.