Can it really be nearly a quarter of a century since Rivka Golani’s world premiere recording of Bax’s delectable Phantasy (1920) with Vernon Handley at the helm of the RPO (Conifer, 4/89 – nla)? High time we had a new version, then, and it does not disappoint: Roger Chase conjures the most gorgeous tone from the Montagnana viola that once belonged to Lionel Tertis (the work’s illustrious dedicatee), and his alliance with Stephen Bell and the BBC CO radiates such joy, lyrical ardour and freshness of new discovery as to make me fall in love all over again with what is arguably Bax’s most nationalistic statement (listen out, towards the close, for the defiant appearance of the Sinn Fein marching song that was to become the anthem of the Irish Free State).

Tertis was also, of course, the recipient of Vaughan Williams’s Suite of 1934, a wonderfully diverting eight-movement offering containing more than its fair share of high-quality inspiration. Truth to tell, I find very little to choose between Chase’s account and Lawrence Power’s (Hyperion, 12/11), save a for touch greater composure in the latter. There are fleeting echoes of RVW, too, in Ellingham Marshes (1940) by Theodore Holland (1878-1947), a fetching evocation of the Suffolk coast sensitively revived here after many years of neglect. While a student at the RCM, Chase was a roommate of Richard Harvey (b1953), whose Reflections (2012) is a comprehensive reworking of a concerto originally commissioned for the 1990 Exeter Festival. An accomplished and consistently rewarding piece it is, too. Top-notch sound and detailed presentation lend further distinction to a highly desirable anthology.