The centrepiece on this new release is the latest, the Concert Piece for oboe doubling cor anglais, two harps and orchestra (1957), written as a triple concerto for Goossens’s brother Léon and sisters Marie and Sidonie. As one might imagine, this fascinating triptych (‘Fantasia’, ‘Chorale’ and ‘Perpetuum mobile e burlesca’) is well written for the instruments with a superbly balanced accompaniment.

Five of the other works are transcriptions from piano-based originals, Kaleidoscope (1933) from a children’s keyboard suite of 1917 18, during which time Goossens composed the aphoristic Four Conceits, recasting it immediately. Of the 12 movements from the two suites, only one runs past two minutes. The Variations on ‘Cadet Rousselle’ (1918, orch 1930) last scarcely longer but contain contributions by Bax, Bridge and Ireland as well as Goossens, who took the soprano-and piano originals and arranged them enchantingly for orchestra alone; the Two Nature Poems (‘Pastoral’ and ‘Bacchanal’; 1919, orch 1937 38) and the Intermezzo from Goossens’s opera Don Juan de Mañara (1935) are more substantial, in every sense.

Only the vigorous scherzo Tam o’Shanter (1918 19) and the Three Greek Dances (1926 27) are original orchestral works (the Concert Piece aside) and vividly characteristic of Goossens’s compositional sensibilities on the smaller scale. Arnold may have trumped the former but it remains highly entertaining, as are the Greek Dances. Chandos’s rich sound is up to the usual high standards and outshines Goossens’s own 1922 recording of Tam o’Shanter. Handley’s for ABC of the Concert Piece – made with the West Australia Symphony Orchestra – and Kaleidoscope, also with the Melbourne SO, remain very competitive; Tam at least more exciting and vivid.