What might seem at first glance a bit of a hotchpotch of a disc, on closer acquaintance listens like a charming, delightfully varied chamber recital of English rarities. If there are no unalloyed masterpieces, there is no trivia either. The Sonatas by Carwithen (c1951) and Pitfield (1939) are the major items: it is a measure of Pitfield’s obscurity that this is one of his most often played works. Both are concisely constructed, appealing works, Pitfield’s seeming more a Sonatina than Carwithen’s until the final ‘Cyclic Variations’ elevate it to a higher plane. There is something similar about Delius’s early Légende (1895, arranged with piano accompaniment c1915), the final, spectral coda of which puts the work on a completely different footing. By comparison, Cyril Scott’s beautiful Sonnets (1913) and the pairs of pieces by Berkeley, Ireland and Orr may seem trifling, but there is considerable artistry in their construction, and depth of feeling as well. So, too, with the brief but compelling Passacaglia (1931) by Percy Young, best known as a musicologist and editor of Elgar’s incomplete The Spanish Lady.

This is a nicely produced disc, the repertoire beautifully played by Fenella Humphreys, more than ably accompanied by Nathan Williamson. Both players sound well attuned to the styles and expressive purposes of each work, whether the formal abstraction of Carwithen and Young or the undeclared programmes behind Delius or Scott. Beautifully clear sound, too. The one fly in the ointment is the sloppiness in documentation regarding dates of composition: those of the Carwithen, Berkeley, Scott and Delius pieces and Ireland’s Berceuse given on the back cover are contradicted in John Turner’s booklet text. I’d go with Turner for accuracy.