There’s certainly no lack of beautiful tone in this collection of performances recorded live at Alice Tully Hall in New York two months ago. The concert brought together violinist Daniel Hope, viola player Paul Neubauer, cellist David Finckel and pianist Wu Han. The Mahler that begins their disc – the single movement that was all the teenage composer completed of a projected full-scale piano quartet while a student at the Vienna Conservatory in 1876 – provides the perfect introduction to the warmly expressive world of the Schumann and Brahms works that follow. Unfortunately, its relaxed, expansive mood seems to pervade those works, too; there’s a lack of urgency and assertiveness that robs the Schumann of its muscularity and purpose, and the Brahms of its rigour and gutsiness. It would be hard to imagine from this laid-back performance why Schoenberg chose to transform this particular Brahms quartet into an orchestral piece; there’s no hint of the symphonic weight that he uncovered, just very accomplished, very well-mannered chamber-music playing.