‘This composer, who was never given to writing for writing’s sake, must not be regarded as a mere disciple of the classics,’ says Cobbett’s Cyclopedic Survey of Chamber Music of Friedrich Gernsheim (1839-1916). ‘He advanced with his times and became far more modern as regards harmony than his friend Max Bruch, with whom he had much in common.’

I make it a rule never to gainsay Cobbett, but – well, if you say so. I’d meant to begin this review by saying that he was a pupil of Moscheles, a teacher of Humperdinck and an admirer of Brahms and that his works for cello sound exactly as you’d expect from that background; namely sincere, well-crafted music in which every other bar (even in Elohenu, a short exploration of Gernsheim’s Jewish musical heritage inspired by Bruch’s Kol Nidrei) simply reeks of Brahms.

It’s not a question of early influences either. The Second and Third sonatas, both in the Brahms-favoured key of E minor, date from Gernsheim’s last decade. The First Sonata, written in 1868, is actually the most distinctive of the three, with a melodic brightness and an enthusiastic ardour that suggests Schumann – perhaps even the influence of Gernsheim’s teenage years in Paris, where he made the acquaintance of Saint Saëns and Rossini.

If that sounds to your taste, this CPO release might well fill a gap in your collection. Alexander Hülshoff isn’t a particularly charismatic cellist – his upper register is reedy and he occasionally fumbles high-altitude passagework – and Oliver Triendl’s piano, which dominates the balance, manages to sound simultaneously tinny and slightly muffled. But they’re committed, musicianly players, and these performances are sincere, inoffensive and perfectly serviceable. Rather like the music itself.