Max Mandel (viola), Amelia Piano Trio Naxos 8.570896***

The two piano trios recorded here sound like anything but the work of that great master of programme music and opera, Richard Strauss. That's because when he wrote them in his early teens he was too young to have found his own voice, and was still at the stage of imitating the great masters of earlier generations. His notoriously conservative father steered him away from the modernisms of Wagner and Liszt, and when he finally got a score of Tristan und Isolde,he had to keep it a secret. The skill of the trios is impressive, as is the development that took place in the year that separates them. The best of the short pieces for piano quartet are an Arabian Dance, inspired by a visit to Luxor, and a Liebesliedchen (Little Love Song), which stretches itself with the melodic expansiveness of the mature composer. The performances are nicely judged. See url.ie/af6o