In Contrasts, clarinettist Jonathan Cohler, violinist Ilya Kaler, and pianist Rasa Vitkauskaite present what Cohler aptly calls “the five pillars” of the clarinet–violin–piano repertoire: Ives’s Largo, Khachaturian’s Trio, Bartók’s Contrasts, Stravinsky’s Suite from L’Histoire du Soldat, and, placed provocatively at the head, Paul Schoenfield’s 1990 Trio. It’s a decision that’s entirely warranted. Fair enough, the Bartók remains the better-known touchstone, but Schoenfield’s work, still relatively unknown, frankly steals the show.

The Schoenfield Trio – sometimes nicknamed the “Klezmer Trio” – fuses Eastern European Jewish dance and song traditions with more classical formal and compositional procedures. Its four movements traverse the exuberant whirl of a Freylakh, a sardonic March, a deeply affecting Niggun, and a whirlwind Kozatzke. Cohler’s comment that the Niggun functions as “the spiritual centre” of the work is borne out in performance: at times, the clarinet’s keening lines seem to rise like a prayer, gradually igniting into...