Central to this wide-ranging collection is the magnificent Viola Sonata of Rebecca Clarke. Her career was extraordinary: she was the first female student of the notoriously misogynistic Stanford, and in 1919 she entered her Viola Sonata into a competition under a pseudonym. It was toss-up for first prize between her and Bloch for his Viola Suite, Bloch being preferred to an unknown composer.

The powerful and striking first movement is marked Impetuoso, which is how it is played here, leading to a dazzlingly brilliant scherzo. The first half of the finale is an Adagio taking the place of a slow movement, before a passionate Allegro rounds off the work. This is the second Naxos recording of the Sonata: the first, equally fine, has Philip Dukes as viola player and is coupled with a varied collection of mainly brief pieces by Clarke.

The other major work here, a most valuable rarity, is a Suite by Theodore Holland. He was professor of composition at the Royal Academy of Music and wrote copiously, although few of his works were performed or published. This Suite of 1938 might equally have been called a sonata, with its powerful first movement bringing out the richness of the viola before the ripely romantic slow movement and the compound-time tarantella-like finale.

Some items here have been specially arranged, such as Walton’s Two Pieces, with their melodies drawn from troubadour themes, and Bliss’s Intermezzo. Other pieces were inspired by Lionel Tertis who, more than anyone else, transformed the status of the viola. The Four Pieces by Frank Bridge, himself a viola player, are lightweight but Bax’s Legend, a Coolidge commission from America, is much more ambitious, starting with a darkly solemn ostinato and covering many moods, while Vaughan Williams’s charming, posthumously published Romance is a fine chip off the master’s workbench. With Michael Hampton the sensitive accompanist, Matthew Jones gives consistently fine performances, beautifully recorded.