I had not encountered three of the four composers here, so a bit of background detail first. Raised in Kirkby Lonsdale (not far from the Lake District), Humphrey Proctor-Gregg (1895-1980) studied at Cambridge University and the Royal College of Music before enjoying early success as a producer with Beecham’s British National Opera Company. During the 1930s he became professor of music at Manchester University and in 1962 was appointed director of the London Opera Centre. His Clarinet Concerto was in all probability written some time around 1940 and proves an amiable, unashamedly lyrical discovery, with a touchingly bittersweet slow movement.

London-born Leighton Lucas (1903-82) started out as a member of Diaghilev’s legendary Ballets Russes and is perhaps best known for his 1974 Massenet adaptation Manon. He served as amanuensis and arranger to Ivor Novello, and his film scores include Hitchock’s Stage Fright (1950) and Ice Cold in Alex (1958). His thoughtful and expertly crafted Clarinet Concerto was written for Sydney Fell and dates from 1957, the same year that Arnold Foster fashioned the present, skilful arrangement for clarinet and strings of Vaughan Williams’s adorable Six Studies in English Folksong of 1926.

Born in Melbourne in 1930, John Carmichael studied piano at the Paris Conservatoire and composition in London with Arthur Benjamin and Anthony Milner. His tuneful and poised Fêtes champêtres (1963) borrows 16th- and 17th-centry French dance forms in a manner akin to Ravel’s Le tombeau de Couperin or Poulenc’s Suite française. The smiling outer movements (‘Passepied’ and ‘Rigaudon’) frame a ‘Berceuse’ of exquisite grace.

Agile solo work from Ian Scott and diligent support from Barry Wordsworth and the Royal Ballet Sinfonia make this an issue worth exploring. Truthful sound and balance, too, albeit within a comparatively unexpansive acoustic.