One name that recurs more frequently than any other in music lovers’ enquiries about unrecorded music is that of Algernon Ashton, an interest that Dutton Epoch have now addressed with this first volume of Ashton’s Piano Sonatas and piano music. The pianist is the Canadian Leslie De’Ath, whose Cyril Scott and Billy Mayerl cycles on Dutton Epoch have created such interest and very favourable reviews. These very well made sonatas probably date from the late nineteenth century but were published in the 1920s, and are the most significant body of piano music by a British composer before Bax. With aristocratic pianism and a command of style and detail, De’Ath makes a strong case for them. As a remarkable bargain, these ‘2 CDs for the price of one’ are well worth exploring.