Rupert Marshall-Luck has long been a champion of overlooked English music of a certain age and this recording is a new addition to a catalogue that includes hidden violin music by Bantock, Gurney and Sacheverell Coke. This disc is slightly different, though, in that while it is an overview of lesser-known works, they are of well-known composers. The span is wide – from 1893 to 1954 – and although they are nicely contrasting they are insubstantial pieces, and it is the saving grace of this disc that Marshall-Luck and his accompanist Matthew Rickard elegantly apply their fine playing to its performance in the same spirit. Five short decorative pieces by Holst, all free-standing but published within two years of each other at the start of the 20th century, stand next to a sonata by Henry Walford Davies; and whereas the Walford Davies is, like the Holst, a first recording, it is harder to see why that music in particular has been so long ignored. Marshall-Luck and Rickard capture its quintessential Englishness beautifully.

So, although it may be that this music is not from the same mould as the great works of the composers represented on this disc, it is nevertheless a perfectly pitched representation of a particular genre. If you don’t buy this disc for the complexity of its musical language, buy it for the decorous playing and absolute purity of its origins.