Hugh Bean (1929-2003) was just nine when he became a pupil of Albert Sammons, and you can hear something of his mentor’s silky tone-production and poetic instinct in his 1972 account of the Elgar Concerto with Sir Charles Groves and the RLPO. Bean may lack the technical assurance of Sammons’s own, incomparable 1929 recording, but his heart is always in the right place (the slow movement is especially touching). Fine sound and balance for the vintage, too.

Also a fine chamber musician, Bean’s long-standing partnership with pianist David Parkhouse is shown to advantage by a sympathetic Violin Sonata taped on New Year’s Day, 1971. Five months later, Bean returned to Abbey Road with three fellow members of the Music Group of London to record the String Quartet – another highly persuasive, understanding display, albeit somewhat at a lower voltage than the exhilarating Vellinger Quartet (also on CfP).

John Ogdon makes an eloquent case for the neglected Concert Allegro before teaming up with the Allegri Quartet for a red-blooded performance of the Piano Quintet, though again it’s the youthful Vellingers (in partnership with Piers Lane) who prove the more imaginative protagonists. No matter, this remains a most attractive package, knowledgeably annotated by Tully Potter.