We have waited 65 years for a recording of Lennox Berkeley’s Second String Quartet so it’s particularly welcome in this admirable Chandos series. It was written in 1940, a vintage period which includes works such as the Serenade for Strings, the Divertimento and the First Symphony, and there are plenty of his fingerprints in this quartet – his fastidious ear for harmony, a relaxed pulse in the central Lento, and Mozartian melodic figures that turn round on themselves. This fine performance brings out the best in what would be a landmark in British chamber music if only it were better known.

Michael Berkeley’s two works from the past decade complement the classical calm of his father’s quartet with something far more intense. Occasionally their lyricism has a kind of melancholy in common but there is little in Berkeley senior to match the expressionist vigour of Michael in these two works. When he wrote Magnetic Field in 1995 he was aware of the Purcell tercentenary and responded by exploring a single middle-register F, reflecting the Fantasia on One Note, that dominates the opening and closing sections.

In the quintet Abstract Mirror there’s a special richness about the two cellos throughout and the parallel sixths at the opening: the dramatic contrasts here and in Magnetic Field are consistently eloquent and both pieces repay repeated hearing. These well recorded performances are a fine demonstration of the Chilingirians’ exceptional panache and show total sympathy throughout.