Bax was born in South London, the eldest son of a nonconformist family. At the age of seventeen a love affair with all things Irish began after he read the poetry of Yeats: 'The Celt within me stood revealed'.

Several of the important chamber works on this recording reflect this Irish love affair, the Elegiac Trio being a response to the tragic events following the Easter Rising in 1916. The serenade-like Nonet and Clarinet Sonata are deliciously 'heart-on-sleeve' works of yearningly lyrical melodies, while the oboe and harp quintets show Bax's pioneering enthusiasm for the precise sound of individual instruments in sometimes unfamiliar groupings.