This coupling of chamber works by Arnold Bax and Frank Bridge, both from early in the 20th century, makes an excellent addition to Naxos’s admirable series of rare British chamber music. Much the longer and more ambitious is the Bax, written in 1914-15, during the First World War. Nothing of that conflict is conveyed in this often exuberant music, for characteristically Bax’s ideas flow generously, maybe too much so for their own good. We know that he composed at the piano and much of this music reflects that, though the strong structure of all three movements is based on striking ideas, with a bold opening to the first movement leading persuasively to a second subject in a sort of hornpipe rhythm, and on to a more foursquare third section.

The central slow movement is based on a warm, direct melody, leading to the mysterious opening of the finale; this hints at the themes of the following Allegro, whose first theme is again in a sort of jaunty hornpipe rhythm, leading to a lyrical second subject, and on to what in a effect is a slow epilogue – a favourite Bax device in his symphonies. At 41 minutes the Quintet may be on the long side but it certainly holds the interest throughout, particularly in a fine performance such as this by the Tippett Quartet and Ashley Wass, who obviously relishes the virtuoso element in the piano writing.

The Bridge Quintet dates from rather earlier – 1904 – but Bridge radically revised it in 1912. A slow introduction leads to a first movement in conventional sonata form and on to a gently lyrical slow movement into which Bridge introduces a scherzo section that is rather Mendelssohnian in its lightness. The finale has a striking opening in an Allegro energico that lives up to that marking before a flamboyant close, one of the relatively few places in which the pianist can show off for, unlike Bax, Bridge was far less concerned with piano writing, being a string player himself. None the less, an attractive work well worth hearing in a performance as lively as this. First-rate sound too, recorded in St Silas Church, Chalk Farm, London.