This disc might be more accurately titled ‘Complete Music for String Trio’, since only one fully fledged string trio is present, Gál’s late F sharp minor (1971). By intent, the lovely, lively Serenade (1932) does not aim for the gravitas implicit in this classical trio form. Krása’s Tanec (‘Dance’, 1944) is a miniature tone-poem depicting the essence and vibrancy of the dance rather than being the thing itself, while the Passacaglia and Fuga is, again, a piece for violin, viola and cello, not an essay in trio form.

That (pedantic) cavil is the only issue I have with this superbly executed disc of music of a high order. If Terezín and Auschwitz denied Krása the opportunity to achieve the stature the potential evident in every bar of Tanec (‘that dazzling mini-masterpiece’, Rob Cowan hailed it) and Passacaglia and Fuga suggested, Gál’s longevity enabled him to attain the artistic goals required for posterity, even if fame did not visit him much after 1932. The Serenade is poised, of a superior charm and as sunny and bright (with a good-humoured Capriccioso opening movement) as the Trio – commissioned by the Viola d’amore Society to showcase their Cinderella instrument – is grave, emotionally complex and sublime.

Ensemble Epomeo provide ravishing accounts of both Gál works, fully in sympathy with the idiom – not surprising in the case of cellist Kenneth Woods, who, when not playing Gál himself, conducts others on Avie in the symphonies; but the same goes for violinist Caroline Chin and viola player David Yang. In Krása’s briefer pair, Ensemble Epomeo are even finer than their Nimbus rivals (an Editor’s Choice in 2003), Daniel Hope, Philip Dukes and Paul Watkins, with superior sound. A splendid disc that I cannot get enough of.