Recorded live at St George's, Brandon Hill, Bristol a year ago, these three piano trios range from the elegant to the stormy, from good humoured to troubling. The C minor Op 1 No 3 (1795), despite being one of the first of Beethoven's numbered works, shows a grandeur and drama hardly hinted at in the earlier E flat WoO 38 of 1791. Haydn apparently advised Beethoven against publishing this new C minor trio, but the older composer's advice was ignored. The E flat Op 70 No 2, written more than a decade later, achieves a new sense of equilibrium, with less aural struggle and more joy. The Gould Piano Trio, established players in this repertoire, prove masterly: nimble, agile and intense.