At the age of 82, Richard Bonynge could be forgiven if he sat back on his laurels rather than heading off for the recording studio yet again. But that is most emphatically not what he seems to be up to at the moment, with a steady stream of recent recordings. He and his late wife Dame Joan Sutherland explored Victorian song throughout their long recital careers, and Bonynge persuaded Decca to let him produce a complete recording of Balfe’s The Bohemian Girl back in 1991. Of late, however, he has turned his mind to some of the period’s lesser-known composers with a fascinating complete recording of William Wallace’s opera Lurline.

Wallace is represented on the new CD, along with Balfe, Benedict and MacFarren, but composers like John Barnett, Edward Loder and Arthur Goring Thomas are each represented in the current catalogue by just one piece each – and that’s the overture on this CD.

It’s delightful fare. The composers here were nothing if not craftsmen and the works have a great deal of colour, energy and imagination. If one or two of them feel a touch overlong, that is a minor quibble when there is so much enjoyable music here to...