Walter Rabl is barely a footnote entry to late-Romantic music, largely because after a promising start as a composer – in 1896 his Clarinet Quartet won first prize in a Vienna composing competition chaired by Brahms – he ended up writing only a clutch of works before ceasing all such efforts, aged 30, to concentrate on conducting. As a result, there are few recordings of his music kicking about, and those musicians who do programme him tend to cherry-pick the Clarinet Quartet (admittedly the cream of this disc) and partner it with repertoire from other composers of the period. So all power to this foursome for sticking with Rabl throughout. It not only gives the punter a different offering, but their reading of the quartet is by far the most satisfying I’ve heard, and I wonder whether that’s partly because they’ve fully signed up to Rabl in his wider context.

Rabl was certainly not an innovator. You don’t get much impression of an individual voice from these works and in fact the first few bars of the quartet really could be Brahms. However, that shouldn’t matter if you’re simply up for some deftly crafted music of the Leipzig conservative school, particularly when it’s done as well as it is here. Wenzel Fuchs, the Berlin Philharmonic’s principal clarinet, is the star of the quartet with a sublime, golden tone that has you impatiently anticipating each new entry. Then as a foursome these musicians make for a beautifully mellifluous grouping, with some lovely tonal dovetailing as they pick up their entries from each other. The Fantasiestücke for piano trio is equally full of sensitive, colourful chamber playing, and the Sonata for violin and piano comes off just as successfully, Laurenceau and Triendl making the most of the virtuoso excitement in their respective parts.