These are big pieces, all three of them, and they receive imposingly big performances. All the readings are acutely aware, as were all three composers, that although a capacity for delicately shadowed lyricism and plaintiveness are among the features that distinguish the viola from the violin, others no less important include a throaty eloquence and an ability to sketch large gestures in firm, grainy lines. Rebecca Clarke's fine Sonata says as much at its outset, with a bold flourish of fifths. It is marked, that opening movement, impetuoso: 'impetuous' indeed, but the work lives up to its opening in impetus as well: the ideas, strong even when they are rhapsodic or lyrical, are subjected throughout to genuine, searching development. Maconchy's Sketches are big, too, despite their brevity (their average duration is a shade over two minutes), as though restriction of means had prompted a laconic concentration of utterance.
The Shostakovich Sonata, his last work, with its intensely moving finale ''in memory of the great Beethoven'', responds very well to such big-scaled playing, but it also demands great seriousness, concentration and an ability to fine down richness of tone to a ghostly pallor. One brief moment of peccable intonation apart, this performance has the work's measure, which is saying a great deal. I do hope Gamut have plans for further recordings by Dukes and Rahman. If they do, they might think again about their balance (the piano is just slightly out of focus). A most welcome and impressive debut recital.'