Unfortunately this 50-yearold Lyrita reissue has been overtaken by events. The admirable James Gibb is in competition with John McCabe’s complete Rawsthorne (Dutton, 10/06) and even this remastered sound is tinny and dry. Gibb’s recording of the Sonatina is interesting to Rawsthorne specialists because, when he gave the first performance in 1949, he played the four movements without a break – see McCabe’s informative book on Rawsthorne. In the third of the Bagatelles Gibb, playing a piano without a third pedal, can’t hold just the low E flat, so he keeps everything in the pedal. Other details can be explored thanks to this reissue.

The Bernard Stevens works are not as familiar as those of Rawsthorne but even here there are modern recordings of everything (11/96). Stevens may be rarely heard these days but he’s very much on CD, including orchestral pieces – see also Bernard Stevens and his Music, the symposium edited by Bertha Stevens where Wilfrid Mellers claims Stevens as the link between Vaughan Williams and Howells and the work of Robert Simpson – and of comparable stature. Hearing the two composers together shows that they do have something in common – drily consistent, at times arid. Rawsthorne was far more successful in developing a personal style with an expressive harmonic language. Gibbs brings out the best in both composers but against odds.