“It is seriousness of purpose that informs both of his [John Pickard’s] piano pieces included in Raymond Clarke’s latest CD for Athene (ATH CD15, following the excellent programme of the complete Brian piano music last year, ATH CD12) … Clarke – the Sonata’s dedicatee – plays both magnificently, as he does the two fine sonatas by Pickard’s former teacher, William Mathias, with which the CD begins.”