Of all Romantic composers, Schumann is perhaps the most quintessentially “romantic”, in the sense of being concerned with human love. The preoccupation is expressed in his fragmentary melodic style, in which each line requires entanglement with another for a sense of completeness.

One of the most poignant embodiments of this comes in the late trio for clarinet, viola and piano, Märchenerzählungen (Fairy-tale stories), in which the dark timbre of the two melodic instruments is used to create dovetailing lines which play in and out of the hesitant piano figuration: there is no dominant instrument, just a mysteriously achieved sensual communion. Equally, as the title suggests, the music also evokes a sense of wonder and exaggerated colour.

Both these aspects were placed in perfect balance in this performance by the eminent young German clarinettist and composer Jörg Widmann, together with the violist Tabea Zimmermann and the pianist Dénes Várjon. Each player was perfectly attuned to the aching expressivity conjured by Schumann, particularly in the gloriously undulating third movement.

In an ingenious programme, the trio was followed by Schumann’s Fantasiestücke for clarinet and piano and echoed, in the second half, by the Märchenbilder for viola and piano, both superbly played, each searching gesture left hanging just long enough to heighten the sense of risk. The future and past of the unusual but irresistible combination of instruments was also charted in the form of Mozart’s Kegelstatt trio and György Kurtág’s Hommage à R. Sch. Only the Mozart seemed a little heavy and overly weighed down, but the brief, hazy sketches and acute contrasts of character in the Kurtág were beautifully captured. A reprise of the Märchenerzählungen’s slow movement provided the vehemently demanded encore, in which the music’s irrepressible poignancy was deepened by the realisation that this superb evening of music-making must, at last, come to an end.