In his Sonata for solo violin, Nicholas Maw created a work of stature and substance, one that more than stands up against the other masterpieces of the genre. Despite the virtuosic rhetoric of its technical demands – ghostlike harmonics, contrapuntal lines punctuated with left-hand pizzicati, and darkly shaded tremolos this 29-minute work is first and foremost a vehicle for an expressive intimacy, richly inventive and many voiced.

'An epic achievement … Maw’s discriminating relationship with traditional material is one of the most intriguing and most rewarding aspects of his creativity.'  
The Times (Gerald Larner), 26 July 1999