Born in Liverpool in 1955, Ian Venables initially studied under Richard Arnell at Trinity College of Music, London, and later with John Mayer and John Joubert at the Birmingham Conservatoire. His already sizeable output includes no fewer than six song-cycles written for and performed by the likes of Andrew Kennedy, Roderick Williams, Patricia Rozario and Ian Partridge, as well as much chamber and instrumental music. All the works on this CD are gratefully written and couched in an approachable idiom that fruitfully quarries the legacy of Elgar, Ireland, Howells and Finzi.

The latter’s influence is especially noticeable in the engaging Piano Quintet that was first heard at the 1995 Malvern Festival. Venables can certainly pen a memorable melody (the first movement’s soaringly lyrical second subject a prime case in point), while the unbridled high spirits of the finale’s main idea owe something to its counterpart in Finzi’s Cello Concerto. If the last ounce of rigour is sometimes lacking (for example, the first movement’s feebly sequential development section), there’s no missing the emotion slumbering beneath the surface, especially in the central Largo espressivo and the touchingly serene epilogue to the whole work. Elsewhere, the Three Pieces for violin and piano (1986) constitutes an amiable enough triptych but it’s the concluding sequence of three single-movement essays that leaves the most enduring impression here, in particular the plangently expressive Soliloquy for viola and piano (commissioned by the 1995 Three Choirs Festival in Gloucester) and even more darkly intense Poem for cello and piano.

Suffice it to say, these consistently shapely and highly communicative performances must have delighted the composer (who was present at the sessions). Fine sound, too. Lovers of the 20th-century English music renaissance will derive much pleasure from this enterprising and rewarding Somm anthology.