The figure of Brahms loomed large over late-19th-century Austro-German composers, nowhere more so than in the field of chamber music. Alexander Zemlinsky was only 25 when the great man died, yet already he’d made enough of an impression for the older composer to recommend his Clarinet Trio to his own publisher, Simrock.

It’s perhaps not surprising that much of the music on this new Praga disc has a Brahmsian flavour to it. Sometimes this seems to act as a launch pad for Zemlinsky’s imagination, such as in the Two Pieces for string quintet (a texture Brahms had made his own), a soaring first piece followed by a glinting scherzo. But elsewhere, particularly in the substantial Cello Sonata, the influence can seem burdensome. Yet, as ever, perception is vastly affected by interpretation, particularly when the music is not of the first rank. On this new reading, cellist Michal Ka√ka takes a broader tempo for the opening movement that weighs the music down and merely emphasises its lack of an individual voice. Othmar Müller on Naxos is faster-flowing, to good effect, and also benefits from more characterful piano-playing in the finale from Christopher Hinterhuber. In the slow movement, though, it is the new performance that is more persuasive, avoiding the temptation to over-emote. The characterful Three Pieces for cello and piano, composed when Zemlinsky was barely out of his teens, are a more compelling proposition, with the composer packing much into their brief span.

To open the disc, a fascinating torso: Zemlinsky’s unfinished setting of a poem by Richard Dehmel for soprano and string sextet. Here is a whiff of the mature composer in the vividness with which he reacts to the tragic text and the luminosity of the string-writing. The performances are more than serviceable without being visionary. But the booklet-notes are a model of erudition.