Since forming in New York City in 2010, the Neave Trio – violinist Anna Williams, cellist Mikhail Veselov and pianist Eri Nakamura – have earned themselves a place at chamber music’s top table through a combination of technical excellence, musical probity and intelligent and involving programming. 

Their contract with the UK’s Chandos label has seen them go French and American, explore the theme of remembrance, and twice place a welcome focus on women composers (Her Voice and A Room of Her Own). This time the album is called Rooted, and the idea is music that reflects nationality and place.

The program opens with Bedřich Smetana’s Piano Trio in G minor, a superbly crafted work that, though known of, deserves to be played more often. The composer practically founded a Czech national school, but this work is more intensely coloured for being written in the aftermath of the loss of a daughter (he and his wife tragically lost three children in infancy). A mood of melancholy is immediately evident, both in the choice of key signature...