Frank Bridge was a star student at the RCM, and his E minor String Quintet from 1901 (one of four chamber offerings he wrote as an undergraduate) certainly reveals a burgeoning talent. Cast in four movements and lasting just over half an hour, it’s an accomplished achievement for one so young. A scrupulous craft and pleasing sense of proportion attest to lessons well learnt under Stanford’s tutelage, yet there’s already a strongly emergent personality in pages such as the third-movement trio section (which, as annotator Paul Hindmarsh observes, looks forward to the world of the Novelletten and Idylls). The finale, too, shows enviable skills, the poignant backward glance to the work’s opening just before the close (6'54") being particularly effective. It’s preceded by a powerfully wrought Lament for two violas first performed by Lionel Tertis and the composer at London’s Aeolian (now Wigmore) Hall in March 1912. Both works are worthy of resuscitation and both are superbly served here.

So too is the Sextet (1906-12) in an even more persuasive performance than that on Chandos. The Raphael Ensemble produce a leaner, more subtly shaded sonority than the Academy ensemble, allied to an extra recreative spark and expressive urgency (witness the edgy anxiety they locate in the scherzo at the heart of the work). At the same time, the opening Allegro moderato is surveyed with all due appreciation of its lyrical grace and elegant architecture; likewise, the finale (in which Bridge recalls material from both preceding movements) combines pliancy and thrust.

So, a delightful anthology, beautifully realised by the experienced Keener/Eadon production team and highly recommended.