Whilst visiting his parents in Brighton in the summer of 1971 the composer sketched out this sonata as an exercise in traditional form for himself, failing at the time either to make a fair copy of it or perform it.(see 0p.130)
The work only came back into mind after meeting pianist Wayne Marshall in 1994, when they spent an evening jointly improvising on two concert grand pianos at the CBS studios in London. A rapport was born, they began rehearsing and searching out repertoire, and Blake discovered the sonata, writing it out and revising it. The piano writing is virtuosic and often percussive and there are four movements. The first is a dramatic Allegro, bristling with chromatic chords and cross-rhythms; the second a reflective Lento; the third a wryly witty Scherzo, and the fourth a Rondo full of energy and syncopation.