The discography of the Russian Georgy Catoire (Katuar, if we wanted to re-Russify him) is still disappointingly meagre, but at least his chamber music is gradually receiving the attention it deserves. Anna Zassimova – who has been championing Catoire for some time now, both as scholar and as pianist – and the Utrecht String Quartet make a strong case for the compact yet emotionally charged and densely textured Piano Quintet. The opening may be almost a paraphrase of that of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Trio, and what follows may put listeners in mind of Fauré’s freely evolving lyricism and César Franck’s complex controlled harmonies. Yet the mixture carries enough individuality and inventiveness to justify a place in the concert repertoire. The new recording takes a more overtly appassionato approach than the no less fine recording by Bengt Forsberg and colleagues, while managing to sound equally natural. Zassimova and co bring out the affinity with early Scriabin in the darkly foliaged second movement and move more swiftly through the finale’s Vrubelian forestations towards the euphoric-kaleidoscopic conclusion, all of which serves to place Catoire firmly, and with no little distinction, within the world of Russian symbolists of the Silver Age.

By comparison, the String Quartet of two years earlier (1912) is a less convincing, rather generic, post-Romantic, Tchaikovskian affair that feels more like a try-out of the medium than a fully fledged contribution (Catoire had already made two previous attempts that he himself found unsatisfactory). The restlessness that is the driving force of the Piano Quintet here presents more as a breathless and ultimately fruitless struggle to achieve momentum: continually promising without ever quite achieving dramatic release. The Utrecht Quartet play the piece for all its worth, though I fancy the Allegro fantastico second movement might have benefited from a greater injection of elfin-fantastic character. Overall, what we have here is never less than persuasive advocacy for music that despite its limitations deserves better than to moulder away on library shelves.