Anyone looking for a forgotten but amiable mid-19th century English composer who wrote music in the shadow of Mendelssohn, need look no further than Francis Bache. Born in Birmingham in 1833, he actually played violin in the local Festival Orchestra under Mendelssohn in 1846. He died of tuberculosis just before his 25th birthday.

His Piano Trio is a most agreeable work, traditionally constructed, with good ideas (both first and subject of the lyrical first movement are similar but engaging), and the Andante espressivo is a true song without words. The pastel-shaded cello Romance (gently presented) is endearing, and the Duo Brilliante is a consistently inventive, sub-Paganini set of variations on a languorous operatic-styled theme. All most entertaining, persuasively played and given a mellow recording.

The songs, too, are Mendelssohnian, and are affectionately sung in a warm, ‘Victorian ballad’ style by Yvonne Howard, although I found her vibrato rather intrusive at times.

Walter Leigh may be a more familiar name thanks to his delectable Harpsichord Concerto. He, too, died young, a victim of the Second World War, and did not realise the full promise of the splendid Student String Quartet of 1929, with its astringent Hindemithian influence dashing Scherzo and gauntly expressive Lento. Before that (in 1922) had come the haunting, popular Reverie, and the charming Romance, an unashamed salon piece.

But by 1930 Leigh was writing his Three Movements in an economical if still directly touching mode. Music for String Orchestra follows in the same friendly vein, four contrasted miniatures of great appeal. If the Viola Sonatina of 1932 returns to more sinewy lyricism, the Woodwind Trio is unashamedly cheerful, and the delicious recorder Air, ‘Tranquillo’, and 1939 Recorder Sonatina firmly established the pastoral neoclassicism which is the true hallmark of Leigh’s writing. This is a stimulating and well-planned disc, understandingly and expertly played, and realistically recorded.