The Aronowitz Ensemble consists of seven talented young musicians in the ‘useful’ combination of piano and string sextet. They have already commissioned several works for the full ensemble, of which the latest, by Martin Suckling (born in Glasgow in 1981), is the central item on this new disc.

It is largely a study in textures, starting and ending with the ominous sound of a low piano stroke enhanced by a cello pizzicato. Like the tolling of a bell, it introduces what the composer thinks of as a sequence of snapshots, each one in ever closer focus. That analysis is not immediately necessary for the enjoyment of a sharply conceived 10 minutes with some glittering textures setting piano against high, lightly screeching strings. In recognition of his gifts, Suckling has now been awarded the RPS’s Composition Prize.

On either side of Suckling’s work on the disc come the two masterpieces by Mendelssohn and Dvořák, which both deserve to be heard more often. Mendelssohn’s Second String Quintet was written in 1847, just after the E minor Violin Concerto, also prompted by his friend Ferdinand David. The first-movement Allegro vivace brings delightful echoes of Mendelssohn’s String Octet, similarly exhilarating but written at the other end of his career, at the age of 16. That is largely due to the downward-sweeping arpeggios which get the music surging along. The Andante scherzando provides a neat contrast before the elegiac Adagio e lento, with its magical transformation of the main theme from the minor into the major. The dashing finale is again very typical of the composer.

The performance of Dvořák’s Piano Quintet in A is if anything even more delectable. The winningly tuneful opening theme leads quickly into what might be counted a Slavonic dance, which later forms the basis of the vigorous development. The Andantino con moto, with a haunting theme in the minor key, comes next, the longest movement. A bracing contrast comes with the Scherzo, light and sparkling in 3/8, described as a furiant. The Aronowitz players give it the most delicious lilt, as they do in the rondo finale with its moto perpetuo main theme: fun music as played here.

Cleanly recorded, this is a worthy successor to the Aronowitz’s first disc for Sonimage (3/10), featuring another commissioned work, Sad Steps by Huw Watkins.