Ivor Gurney’s story is among the saddest. Trained as a Gloucester Cathedral chorister, he became a pupil of Stanford at the RCM, where he was counted as perhaps the most promising of his generation. Already there were signs of the bipolar problems that were to plague him; but in the army he found communal life in the trenches surprisingly congenial. After being gassed at Passchendaele, he was invalided out and resumed his studies, this time with Vaughan Williams. That marked the beginning of a hectic creative period which included the sonata on this disc. But eventually he was consigned to an asylum, owing to his bipolar disorder, and his creativity left him. He remained incarcerated until his death in 1939.

It is rather shocking that this is the premiere recording of this fine sonata, made thanks to the Ivor Gurney Trust, Ivor Gurney Society and several dozen enthusiasts devoted to the English Music Festival. Written in 1918-19, it is on a massive scale in four movements, starting with a Più allegro at once lyrical and powerful. The following Scherzo is brief, with the violin playing pizzicato in the outer sections; it is followed by a hushed, intense slow movement, beautifully played by Rupert Marshall-Luck, whose detailed notes in the booklet are most helpful, complete with musical illustrations. After a brief introduction, the finale brings an attractive ‘travelling’ theme leading up to a powerful climax and a hushed close. The influence of Vaughan Williams is hinted at, though Gurney’s individual voice is already established.

The Elgar Sonata – one of the works of the composer’s ‘Indian summer’ – makes an apt coupling, dating from exactly the same period. It’s good to be reminded what a powerful piece it is, helped by the concentration of Marshall-Luck and his pianist, Matthew Rickard. After his periods of depression during the First World War, Elgar found respite in the Sussex countryside at his cottage, Brinkwells. The finale, like the first movement, finds Elgar at his most positive and purposeful – if with an elegiac element maybe inspired by the death of the violinist friend to whom he intended to dedicate the sonata. The central Romance is the most problematic movement, with its strange, fragmented main theme. Perceptively, Marshall-Luck points out in his notes the echoes of the committal theme from The Dream of Gerontius in the central section.

Lionel Sainsbury’s solo violin sonata, a compact work lasting just over seven minutes, makes a valuable addition to the programme. It develops a main theme in double-stopping, with hints of folk melody in the lyrical sections and some brilliant passagework in triplets. Marshall-Luck plainly enjoys the sympathetic writing, reflecting the work’s title, Soliloquy. It’s a well-balanced recording, made at the Nimbus studios at Wyastone Leys.