Piano trios have cause to be grateful that Brahms’s loyal friend Theodor Kirchner (1823-1903) did such a thoroughly professional job arranging the two string sextets for violin, cello and piano. Brahms himself approved. If you know the originals you might feel short-changed at moments like the opening of the Second Sextet, where the piano is no substitute for secretively rustling viola, or the lolloping theme of the finale, conceived for the violin’s throaty G string but transferred by Kirchner to the piano. More generally, you miss the succulent richness of Brahms’s sextet scoring, especially in No 2. Yet so skilful are the transcriptions that I suspect most listeners new to this music would hardly guess that it wasn’t originally composed for piano trio.

This new disc starts unpromisingly with the pianist’s over-accented delivery of the First Sextet’s long-arched opening theme, stolen by Kirchner from the cello. Things improve considerably after that, with ardent phrasing of the cello-led second theme and an exciting build to the development’s central climax. Too often, though, I thought the Grand Trio Vilnius lacking in delicacy and charm in these most companionable of Brahms’s chamber works. The First Sextet’s Allegro molto Scherzo – in effect a quick Ländler – feels stolid rather than amiably bucolic. The twilit scherzo-intermezzo of No 2 emerges as too extrovert, and sometimes too loud, from the Vilnius players; and with an over-assertive piano (not merely the result of a close recorded balance), the veiled opening of the Adagio becomes all too corporeal. Granted, the trio medium can never quite replicate Brahms’s floating violin-viola textures here. Yet turn to the Gould Piano Trio (Champs Hill, 1/18), and you’ll hear playing of a mysterious stillness that eludes the more forthright Vilnius.

In both works the Gould are far more responsive to Brahms’s frequent requests for dolce, tranquillo and piano espressivo. And their pianist, Benjamin Frith, is that much more sensitive and refined in touch than his Vilnius counterpart. There’s some fine, vigorous playing, from the strings especially, on this new disc. But for any Brahms lover who wants the sextets in their trio incarnation, the Gould are a clear first choice.