Schuman: Piano Trio No 2; Kinderszenen; Piano Quartet ****

In Ireland we don't hear much of the Irish Baroque Orchestra's artistic director, violinist Monica Huggett, in 19th-century repertoire. Here, as a member of the Benvenue Fortepiano Trio with Tanya Tomkins (cello) and Eric Zivian (playing an 1841 Viennese piano by Franz Rausch), Huggett gives vital accounts to Schumann's F major Piano Trio and Piano Quartet in E flat. Zivian's solo account of Kinderszenen is rather prosaic. But in the two chamber works the players present Schumann with a clarity and independence of line that modern instruments rarely rival. The Piano Quartet is, of course, an acknowledged masterpiece. And in the Benvenue's hands the rather neglected trio comes fully to life. url.ie/e8