There are some half-dozen accounts of Amy Beach’s 1938 Trio (in A minor, not specified on the disc) currently available that I know of. One – from the Ambache – is also on Chandos and has long been my go-to recommendation for this lively yet nostalgic work, based largely on material from some of Beach’s songs. As Rob Cowan noted in his review of the fine Monte Trio version a couple of years ago, the Ambache brought greater breadth to the central Lento espressivo than their rivals, and so it proves again here, though the Neave are persuasive advocates of the work’s ‘late-Romantic glow’. Their articulation of the swifter passages does them credit and this is a strong alternative.

The Trio (1921) by Rebecca Clarke (this year marks the 40th anniversary of her death) is even better served on disc at present, with several fine recordings. I have long admired that by Martin Roscoe, Andrew Watkinson and David Waterman on ASV (coupled with Beach’s Quintet, curiously), though this newcomer runs it close and is rather more sumptuously recorded. Like the Trio des Alpes (who coupled their account with a so-so one of the Beach), the Neave have the measure of Clarke’s then quite radical style, closer to Bartók than to Vaughan Williams. The greater cogency of Clarke’s writing draws out a taut and vivid interpretation.

Louise Farrenc composed three piano trios (the third is an alternative version of the Op 44 Flute Trio) and they are all terrific listens. The Neave take a comparatively expansive way with No 1 here, as compared to the Linos Ensemble, part of a fine all-Farrenc programme with slightly more clinical sound. Collectors may prefer all-Beach or all-Farrenc couplings but the Neave’s programme makes a splendid introduction to these three pioneering female composers.