Kinsky Trio Prague,Praga Digitals PRD/DSD 250 80 ****

Who's the odd man out among composers Foerster, Novák, Janacek and Fibich? Well, from an Irish perspective, it might have to be Novák, as he's the only one not to have had an opera performed at the Wexford Festival. The Kinsky Trio bring a touch of fire to the earliest work, the 21-year-old Fibich's Trio in F minor of 1872. Foerster's Trio in B flat of 1894 mixes joy and elegy in memory of his sister, Marie. Novák's D minor Trio of 1902 is "the fruit of the blackest Baudelairean depression," expressed in a 19th- rather than a 20th-century flavour. Musically, it's Janacek's Pohádka ( Fairy Tale) for cello and piano, which the composer worked on between 1910 and 1921, which stands out, not just for strength of musical character, but because it's heard here on disc for the first time in a four- movement reconstruction premiered as recently as 2008.

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