If at first glance the pairing of Sawyers with Elgar seems strange, it is worth considering the similar musical environment in which all three works were written. Both composers were compelled to write in their own very individual style which proved unfashionable within musical circles for some of their career. Indeed much of Sawyers’s output was initially dismissed for failing to embrace the more esoteric, experimental and avantgarde techniques embraced by many of his contemporaries. Sawyers has always been compelled to write music that he “could hear” with every note serving an expressive purpose.

Similarly, by 1918 Elgar had become dejected with the modernist trends already gaining momentum in Europe and would write very little for the final 20 years of his life. For Sawyers, a busy professional life as a violinist in the Royal Opera House Orchestra left a 20 year hiatus in his output and this disc marks the first commercial release of his chamber music.