Only last October I gave a guarded welcome to Chamber Domaine’s world première recording of Bliss’s 1915 Piano Quartet. Now comes this far more commanding successor from the Maggini Quartet and Peter Donohoe, who locate an underlying toughness of argument and urgency of expression in both outer movements to make one regret all the more forcefully the budding composer’s decision to withdraw the piecefollowing his demobilisation in 1919.

Otherwise unrepresented in the domestic catalogue, the Viola Sonata waswritten in 1933 for Lionel Tertis. It’s a substantial, well-crafted work, impassioned and thoughtful, and culminating in an extended coda that ponders wistfully on what has gone before. If Bliss’s inspiration lacks the distinctive melodic profile and organic mastery of, say,Walton’s Viola Concerto of four years previously (a cruel comparison, maybe, but apparently Bliss did think of his Sonata in terms of a concerto rather than a chamber composition), the work as a whole is still worth getting to know. The Maggini’sviolist, Martin Outram, makes commendably light of the solo part’s at times hair-raising demands and Donohoe offers exemplary support.

For me, however, the jewel in this anthology is the Oboe Quintet that Bliss composed in 1927 for Leon Goossens. Elegance and resourcefulness are the watchwords in the first two movements, whose bitter-sweet lyricism forms an effective contrast with the exuberant festivities of the finale (where Bliss introduces the Irish folk tune, Connelly’s Jig). Nicholas Daniel and the Maggini give a spry, ideally proportioned reading, more intrepid in its expressive range than than that of Gordon Hunt and the Tale Quartet. (I also hope Hyperion has plans to restore the Nash Ensemble’s marvellous version on Helios, 4/85 – nla.)

Production-values throughout are of a high order. Very warmly recommended.