Florestan Trio, Richard Hosford, Stephen Stirling - Brahms: The Complete Piano Trios (2014)

For the record, Florestan is the principal tenor character in Beethoven's heroic opera, Fidelio. He then became one of Schumann's literary alter egos as a music critic, so that's where this excellent group of British musicians gets its name. And since Schumann and Brahms were very close friends, this particular trio ought to be first rate in Brahms's music, right? As luck would have it, they are! Brahms's trios for various combinations of instruments really brought out the best in him. They have all of his typical strictness of form and construction, allied to a particularly generous fund of melody. There isn't a dud in the lot, so if you're interested in any of these pieces, why not get them all? -- David Hurwitz