I didn’t expect to begin this review with the single-movement Sonatensatz – and it’s true, you’re not likely to buy this album for the sake of what Tully Potter, in the booklet notes, describes as no more than a ‘pleasing encore’. But still: what a perfect little distillation of the qualities of the Busch Trio, as well as the unformed but still unmistakably real genius of the 15-year-old Schubert!

Listen to the enthusiasm with which it leaps out of the opening bars; the way guileless courtesies, tender-hearted lyricism and obvious homages to Beethoven and Mozart jostle for position. And how the Busch Trio take Schubert’s sincerity at face value: whether Omri Epstein’s piano, swelling with a grandeur that befits a teenage composer with something Very Important to say, or violinist Matthieu Van Bellen’s limpid, unforced phrasing when Schubert really does confide something truly personal.

In short, they play with affection and style – a spirit that carries on over into the Notturno, where a knack for storytelling combines with a vivid but always appropriate ear for instrumental colour and emotional atmosphere. It all points to the Busch Trio’s continuing commitment – as Rob Cowan put it, reviewing their Dvořák trios a little while back (9/16) – ‘to put the music, and only the music, first’.

So in their E flat Trio, you’ll find a similar combination of tonal beauty, poetic feeling and ebullient grandeur, all charged with the same alert, purposeful energy. The Andante, in particular, has a real sense of purpose; this is a wanderer with a very definite destination in view, and the Busch players are not afraid to get mud on their boots in Trio of the Scherzo, either. The finale has both exuberance and poise, but you never forget – rightly – that this is a young man’s music.