This isn’t the first CD to group Shostakovich’s two piano trios with his late Romances to poems by Alexander Blok but, for the freshness and excellence in every aspect of performance and production, it would be my pick. The songs originated in a request from Rostropovich for a work for his wife Galina Vishnevskaya with cello; Shostakovich fulfilled the brief in his setting of the first of seven poems and then decided he needed more instruments. All permutations of the trio are used, in ones and twos and with the full ensemble reserved for the last. This was untitled by the poet but called “Music” by Shostakovich, who said he would have liked to assign that title to the cycle overall since the words were so musical. A cycle it definitely is, devised with a master’s control of growing effect. A “confessional” tone in the writing can be sensed throughout, as if Shostakovich’s own anguish and compassionate feelings were surfacing in his response to the words. The two dramatic numbers are “Gamayun, the Prophet Bird”, which foretells the 13th century destruction of Russia by the Tartars, and “The Storm”, the climax of the cycle; both of them leave fleeting chills of foreboding and unrest on the lyricism elsewhere, which is far from serene. How clever this composer was at aligning himself with a poet’s voice and giving projection to intimate and personal feelings.

In 1967 he had envisaged playing the piano part himself at the first performance but was not well enough. In writing it he had taken into account his own restricted capabilities, he said, though I can imagine Susan Tomes reacting to that with a raised eyebrow – there is plenty for the pianist to do. As always with the Florestan Trio, the judgement of musical considerations generates what they do. Trio formations of big solo personalities can be good to hear in a piece such as the Trio No 2 – it was recorded by David Oistrakh, Milo≈ Sádlo and the composer himself – but the rewards which come from the best of accredited groups can be more lasting. Finesse of blended sound and detail have to do with this, but it is really a question of musical group dynamics responding more acutely to the energies and flux of intensities within the music itself. In the Romances, Susan Gritton is very much part of the ensemble. The command of a constantly modulated dynamic and expressive life is admirable: and I like her singing for its true, centred tone, coloured by the Russian words and impeccably controlled. Special praise too for Anthony Marwood, cooking up on the violin a contribution sul ponticello to the terrifying storm and not afraid to go the extra distance.

The near-frantic “edge” to the second movement of the Piano Trio No 2 is vivid too; and the finale, the longest and weightiest of the four, seems to me exceptionally well realised. Neither in 1944, when this work was completed, nor at the time of the Romances in 1967 was Shostakovich a happy man but the resolution he achieves is as if to say that some hope and belief in the future must be maintained. To these two pieces, the Piano Trio No 1 of 1923 is more than a makeweight, the crosscut contrasts and theatre of it already characteristic of him, at the age of 16.

The songs are placed second, between the trios, and I have especially enjoyed listening to them and the Trio No 2 in sequence. The recordings were made last year in London in the Henry Wood Hall and the balances, so tricky to get right with a piano trio, are everything they should be. Robert Philip’s essay in the booklet makes me determined to spend more time with Shostakovich, the late music in particular.