Having issued, among much other repertoire, a well-received complete set of Beethoven’s ouput for piano trio, the Gould Trio now embark on Schubert’s music for the combination. Most trios go first for the grander, more serious and (even) larger E flat Second Trio, so it’s good to hear instead such a well-considered performance of its predecessor to open the series.

The long association between these players shows in their unanimity of approach. The recorded balance, in the chapel of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, just slightly favours the piano over the strings but nevertheless reveals the care taken over articulation and dynamics by all three players. Theirs is a thoughtful, somewhat inward approach to this big-hearted work, in contrast to the more dramatic, showy playing of an ensemble such as the Vienna Piano Trio. With the opening Allegro, Scherzo and finale just a notch faster than the Gould, the VPT (with a balance focusing a touch more on the strings) drill into the intensity of this music – the paroxysms of the first movement’s development screwing up the tension to a degree not matched by the Gould (or just about anybody else), the odd humour of the Scherzo coming over with a greater twinkle – although the Gould weave a wonderful Viennese atmosphere in the waltz-like Trio. The rondo finale is more continuous, less episodic in the VPT’s performance, too, and the Andante, just a touch more spaciously paced, finds the perfect balance between musical motion and emotional stasis.

The couplings on the Gould’s album are the magical (and almost obligatory) Notturno, a work it remains impossible not to be awed by, and a sequence of piano waltzes from around the same period, arranged for trio later in the 19th century by the composer Julius Zellner (1832-1900), which, like so much of Schubert’s late music, builds a structure of greater substance than its foursquare dance material might initially suggest. All receive faultless performances; but for the B flat Trio, more drama can be heard elsewhere.