Kenneth Leighton wrote his first work for solo cello as a twenty-year-old student at The Queen’s College, Oxford. Completed on New Year’s Eve of 1949, the piece was a sonata in three movements in F minor and, while unfortunately not remaining intact, was the provenance of the earliest work on this disc, the Elegy for cello and piano, Op.5. Following this early work for the instrument, Leighton was to continue to write for the cello on a regular basis, with a plethora of compositions that include the instrument in various guises: as a solo instrument, with the piano, in a concerto role, in various chamber permutations as well as, inevitably, within an orchestra. This particular collection focuses on the quite substantial contribution of solo works (including those with piano) that Leighton made to the repertoire of the cello.