Shura Cherkassky was introduced to Nimbus by Wilfred Stiff, then a director of the London agent Ibbs & Tillett. Wilfred recognised a young label pushing ahead fast at the transition point between LP and CD, one with a fondness for artists whose careers were waning. Accordingly, he dispatched one of his most prestigious names to the Nimbus Studio. Cherkassky was at that time acknowledged as one of the 'great' generation whose undoubted king was Horowitz, but after a long, notable career that began in his mid-teens, his popularity in the concert hall and recording studio had fallen. Shura's late career was in need of a final boost. Cherkassky's first visit lasted four days-31 January to 3 February 1981. He immediately settled in the unusual setting. He stayed in the big house, not in a hotel, and walked into a studio so completely unlike the characterless spaces he had famously grown to decry. Here there was no sterile barrier to his inspiration. The grand Victorian reception room at Wyastone Leys served as a spectacular performance space, it's full-height windows framing commanding views down the Wye Valley. Shura loved it, signing a copy of his Pictures at an Exhibition LP, 'To everyone in Nimbus with love and the most wonderful feeling of inspiration'. The recordings made during these four days are all presented on this release. Most of them enjoyed only a brief release on LP. Because of their 'analogue' origin they have been denied subsequent re-issues. � Adrian Farmer

Soulima Stravinsky was the third child of Igor and Yekaterina Stravinsky. His career in music encompassed performing as a recitalist and concerto soloist, particularly noted for interpretations of his father's music, musicology, education, and composition. Soulima's performing career was slowly expanded with achievements as a transcriber, editor, author, and composer, although in the later endeavour his work was inevitably overshadowed by his father's towering reputation. Soulima had a particular gift for composing music for children. He made two visits to the Nimbus Studios, in 1975 to record these performances of his father's music, and in 1977 to record his own music for children. This is the first release of these fine performances, fascinating not least for their specific historic significance. � Adrian Farmer

For some twenty-five years I've had the inestimable privilege of collaborating with Augusta Read Thomas, and so it is with some authority that I claim she is a singular refutation of Newtonian physics: she creates energy. In countless workshops, recording sessions, performances, and masterclasses I've watched her elicit previously undiscovered timbral nuance, dynamic possibility, and personal virtuosity from players and composers alike. Hers is a creative energy so irrepressible that somewhere amidst the cascade of commissions, awards, and international flights to attend performances of her work she, to mention just two examples, launched Chicago's largest-scale new music festival (Ear Taxi) as well as one of the country's most prolific incubators of new work, The Grossman Ensemble. I'm happy to report that the performances captured within this tracklist provide significant evidence in substantiating this bold claim. To my ears, Sol offers Gusty's compositional luminosity as a collection of rituals for introspection, spiritual stimulus, and, at the very least, a reminder that light can prevail in darkness. Particularly enticing is that when imbibed as a whole, this record shepherds us through an extraordinary ceremony that, as with each of the five rites comprising it, tenders the possibility for subtle yet substantive restoration and, ultimately, transformation. � Doyle Armbrust

The Yale Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1965 by a group of students who saw the growing potential for a large orchestral ensemble to thrive on campus. With a spirit for promoting new music and performing underrepresented composers alongside works of the standard Western canon, the orchestra has become a destination for students who wish to perform orchestral music at the conservatory level while taking advantage of all that Yale - a liberal-arts institution - has to offer. In it's more than fifty years, the orchestra has performed in some of the most hallowed music halls in the United States from Carnegie Hall in New York to Benaroya Hall in Seattle, toured twelve countries including Turkey, Russia, Brazil and Mexico, and premiered over fifty works of new music by composers including Leonard Bernstein, Benjamin Britten, and Caroline Shaw. YSO alumni have music careers in major orchestras around the world, including the New York Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, and the Berlin Philharmonic. The YSO is led by William Boughton, who is in his seventh and final year conducting the orchestra.

Towards the end of his life, Johannes Brahms declared more than once that he was retiring from composing - luckily for us, he never quite followed through. Not because he had run out of inspiration - Brahms was at the height of his powers - but because he felt a growing pull toward the intimacy of chamber music, piano pieces, and songs, which brought him deeper personal satisfaction than grand orchestral forms. Still, Brahms returned once more to orchestral writing in 1887 with the Double Concerto in A minor, Op. 102 - his last orchestral work. The reason was personal: a gesture of reconciliation toward his estranged friend, the great violinist Joseph Joachim. This concerto, written for Joachim and cellist Robert Hausmann, symbolises renewed harmony - not just musically, but emotionally. The two solo instruments engage in a rich, expressive dialogue throughout. Mozart wrote his Sinfonia Concertante in E-flat major for violin and viola in the summer of 1779 - a true synthesis of symphony and concerto. This work is expansive and noble in character, full of brilliant writing for both soloists. Mozart, himself an accomplished violinist, clearly understood how to write for the instrument with flair and sensitivity. One striking feature of the work is that the viola part is written in D major, requiring the instrument to be tuned a semitone higher (a practice known as scordatura). Common in the Baroque era, scordatura was still occasionally used in Mozart's time to achieve a brighter, more penetrating sound. The autograph of the piece is lost; only later copies have survived - except for the original drafts of the cadenzas. On this recording, the viola part is performed by a cellist, playing in the original viola position without octave transposition. � Jarom�r Havl�k

The search for our true home is a perennial quest no matter what our historical or cultural background might be. The goal of the journey is not a return to a certain place on the map, or the recovery of lost memories, but to discover within ourselves the true home from which we all came and to which we shall return. It is a search for the meaning of our existence, a search for beauty. The works collected in this album have for a long time been good companions in my search for beauty, in my "journey home". They brought plenty of joy and precious moments of discovery and recognition for which I am grateful. I hope that you who listen to this album will share with me an admiration for these works, a special feeling of intimacy and tenderness, and will be inspired and reassured on your own journey home, your own search for beauty. Happy sailing! � Vladimir Feltsman (The tracks on this release are all taken from Vladimir Feltsman's extensive discography on Nimbus Alliance)

In 2001, under the umbrella title la Serenissima, Richard Rijnvos started a series of compositions dedicated to the city of Venice. This multi-year 'work-in-progress' currently includes seven compositions, the most recent two of which are the subject of this recording. Jan Hage is particularly known as an advocate and sought-after performer of contemporary organ music. In 2006 he received the silver medal of the Parisian Societe Academique Arts Sciences Lettres for his services to French organ culture. Jane Chapman is one of Britain's most distinguished classical harpsichordists. Her repertoire stretches from early music to contemporary avant-garde. Described in The Independent on Sunday as "Britain's most progressive harpsichordist", and in the Guardian as "a fearless contemporary music performer" she is at the forefront of creating and inspiring new music for harpsichord.

The value of such arrangements is that they allow a wider perception into a composer's compositional processes, and which have the potential for presenting new insights and different characteristics to particular pieces of music, which might not be evident in the originals. Hence these arrangements extend a practice that was normal in the early eighteenth century, and in this recording they are played on instruments with which Bach would have been entirely familiar. What revelations they reveal! David Ponsford

The world premiere recording of Durey's L'Offrande lyrique (Op. 4), six songs set to texts by Rabindranath Tagore (recipient of the 1913 Nobel Prize for Literature) in French translation by Andre Gide, is a highlight of this collection. Musically inspired by the atonality of Arnold Schoenberg's The Book of Hanging Gardens, and often credited as the first piece of free twelve-note technique in French music, L'Offrande lyrique navigates a harmonic language which can hold clarity and vivid colour in Lumiere ! ma lumiere !, or blur into dark heavy clouded gesture in Les nuages s'entassent, effectively supporting Tagore's language. At times, the words seem to muse over seemingly unconnected piano motifs, before meeting- sometimes harmonically, sometimes not-sometimes walking the same path, other times meandering separately again. For Paris 1913 to include a world premiere recording of such important music, written over a century ago, is thrilling, and places Durey firmly alongside his contemporaries in the cafes and salons of pre-war Paris. Far from being overshadowed by the better-known composers in this anthology, these songs stand as a testament to the strength of French melodies of the era. � Andrew Matthews-Owen & Claire Booth

Wind Takes Flight began with a simple yet powerful idea: to reimagine the music of Hildegard of Bingen, the 12th-century mystic and composer, through the lens of modern electronic soundscapes. The title, drawn from one of Hildegard's sacred poems featured on the album, also reflects her love of birds and the natural world. These have been enduring sources of inspiration for us throughout this creative journey. As collaborators, we, - Julia Sinclair, an English soprano soloist, and Marijn Cinjee, a Dutch electronic musician - were drawn to the timeless spirituality and beauty of Hildegard's work. The idea of bringing together our two musical worlds to create something new and transformative felt both exciting and inevitable. In April 2023, we debuted an experimental live improvisation inspired by Hildegard's hymn O ignis Spiritus paracliti at Stone Nest in London, in an immersive listening experience using more than 40 loudspeakers driven by the 4DSOUND spatial sound system. The audience's response to the soaring vocal lines and immersive electronic textures confirmed that we were onto something special, and that performance became the foundation for Wind Takes Flight, the album's title track. Over the next eighteen months, we poured ourselves into this project, crafting what would become Wind Takes Flight. The album is a conversation across time - beginning with Hildegard's chants and evolving into a love letter to her music, merging her sacred compositions with contemporary sound design while remaining true to the deep spirituality and reverence of her music. Premiering the album live in spatial sound at Het Concertgebouw in Amsterdam was an unforgettable experience, captured in the drama and beauty of Ekstasis, a piece created for that performance. Now, we're thrilled to share Wind Takes Flight with you. This album is more than music; it's a bridge between past and present, an invitation to step into a space where ancient echoes meet modern innovation, and where the spirit of Hildegard of Bingen - artist, composer, and pioneer - soars anew.

The romantic character pieces of Schumann and Brahms have been my musical companions since childhood. In earlier years, I was immersed in their emotional content. The craft, especially the economy of scale and refinement of compositional technique, captured my attention as a college student. Later, new discoveries were revealed at the intersections of my musical journey where emotion was guided by intellect. Throughout my career, I have championed new music created by fellow students and colleagues. Shortly after assuming the deanship of the Yale School of Music, it occurred to me that the expansive piano repertoire could be enriched further by contemporary character pieces. These would be in the tradition of the romantic era, each one being three to five minutes in length with an inherent emotional impulse. Yale School of Music and new music are synonymous, dating to it's founding in 1894 with Horatio Parker and throughout the history of YSM a composition faculty with an international presence - Paul Hindemith, Krzysztof Penderecki, Jacob Druckman, and Martin Bresnick among them. Approximately two thirds of the Pulitzer Prize recipients in composition have some relationship to the Yale School of Music. When asked to compose a contemporary character piece that I would perform and record, my faculty colleagues and friends were most gracious and responded affirmatively. I should add that all of them exhibited exceedingly generous patience while waiting to hear premieres due to my unanticipated schedule intrusions. My gratitude and admiration for each of them is boundless not only for their personal encouragement but also for this significant contribution to the piano repertoire and our musical life. � Robert Blocker

Having studied the cello as a child, I have always felt a special affinity with string music. My introduction at the age of 14 to the music of Britten was through his first string quartet, the opening of which still fills me with awe, and his works - especially those for strings - have remained a lifelong inspiration. I am delighted therefore that this recording of my String Quartets Nos. 2-4 has been released, made possible by the generous support of the Richard Thomas Foundation. I have been fortunate to work closely with the Piatti Quartet over a number of years. It was they who commissioned my String Quartet No.1 (2014), a piece they have performed extensively and recorded (Champs Hill Records 2018). Their enthusiasm encouraged me to continue exploring the genre, and - a decade later - it has been both a privilege and a huge pleasure to have another opportunity to write for them (String Quartet No.4). � Joseph Phibbsv

The Epic of Gilgamesh, the oldest written literary text in Middle Eastern/Western cultural history, predates the Hebrew Bible. The epic relates the story of King Gilgamesh, partly divine, partly human, who may have existed historically circa 2800 BC. From immature youth and a belief in his mmortality, he eventually comes to accept the power and reality of Death. There are five movements/scenes: The first, Prologue, echoes the anxious state of the city of Uruk, which is suffering under the despotic rule of the young King Gilgamesh. The gods, in order to restore a sense of balance, create his counterpart, the wild man Enkidu, who is lured away and tamed by a temple prostitute. The pitch centres of this scene spell out the musical letters of Gilgamesh which also underly the entire work. The Journey to the Forest of Cedar depicts the effortful trek made by Enkidu and Gilgamesh in search of glory. They venture to the Forest of Cedar to cut down one of the largest trees to make a great door for the Temple of Enlil, the divine ruler of the Cosmos. They kill the forest guardian, Humbaba, who is protected by seven auras. From Dawn to Dusk, a fast movement, illustrates Gilgamesh's race against the sun. He arrives just before sunset and finds himself in a garden of jewels. Gilgamesh sings a Lament on the Death of Enkidu which leads into the final scene. Apotheosis. Gilgamesh visits Ut Napishti (precursor of Noah in Genesis) who has survived the Flood and been granted immortality by the gods. Gilgamesh fails the final task set by Ut-Napishti to test his suitability for eternal life, returning to Uruk to build his lasting monument, the city walls. The Resurrection of the Soldiers for string orchestra was commissioned by George Vass, to whom it is dedicated, and the English Symphony Orchestra, for the 2016 Presteigne Festival, with funds generously donated by the John S Cohen Foundation and the Arts Council of England. The title derives from the final panel of Stanley Spencer's Sandham Chapel visionary series of paintings which were the result of Spencer's experiences in the British army in World War One and depicts soldiers emerging from their graves on the last day. The piece is in three continuous parts: a slow, sustained introduction which is, in essence, a descent from the note E by means of a prolation canon, but which ascends to a rather intense climactic point before falling and giving way to a very active fugue which, after arriving at an anguished, sustained climax, is succeeded by a closing slow movement consisting of a rising melodic line which permeates the entire texture heterophonically, leading to the closing E major triad. The work thus traces a cyclical path as it progress towards a sense of resurrection, re-birth and hope. � Robert Saxton

In addition to sonatas, variations, and concertos for piano and orchestra, Mozart wrote numerous works for solo piano: fantasias, rondos, adagios, and other assorted pieces of short and moderate length. We don't know exactly why these works were written, but we know that Mozart had to come up with new material for his many public and private appearances as a composer and performer. In those days composers were usually performers as well. Any composition was also a potential source of income from publication and from patrons and friends to whom the works were dedicated. But no matter why these marvellous works were written, we are lucky to have them.

Nadia Anjuman (1980-2005) was an Afghan poet writing during a period of turmoil. In 1995, when the Taliban captured Herat, her birthplace, women’s liberties were drastically reduced. A gifted student, Nadia faced a future with no hope of education. With other women she attended an underground educational circle called the Golden Needle Sewing School. Meeting under the guise of learning how to sew, the meetings were in fact discussions on literature with Herat professors. The project was dangerous: If caught, the punishment could be imprisonment, torture or hanging. Nadia was 21 when the Taliban was ousted. While earning her degree in literature she published her first book of poetry. She married into a family who believed that, since she was a woman, writing brought disgrace on their reputation. Yet she continued to write. At the age of 25 she was beaten to death by her husband.

The five poems I chose are wide-ranging and cover extremes of emotion: from love; to delight in being a poet; to despair at her lack of freedom; and even contemplation of suicide. The opening poem Turmoil, is an astonishing volte face, starting with a song of love for the solitude and beauty of the night, then a yearning to be free of earth’s constraints and to be united with God. It concludes with a passionate plea for the power of her own poetry to save her. The music starts hesitantly, unsure – the motif seems afraid to go any further, although it will become the unifying motif of the whole song. The angular outbursts give way to softer, more lyrical vocal and string lines as spring is evoked, with a solo viola emerging from the group and connecting the singer with the songs she once sang. The music surges at her hope to “leave this solitude and sing with joy”. At full intensity, surrounded by shimmering strings, the soprano affirms the poet’s determination to cry out her truth.

- Richard Blackford

In his music, if not in his life, Schubert was able to reconcile his innermost longings with the realities of life, to overcome the fear of death and restore the “lost paradise” of innocence and beauty. Very few artists have expressed their inner world, their vision of heaven, with such lucidity and conviction. Schubert composed an incredible amount of music during the last year of his life, as if knowing that he was running out of time. These works represent the pinnacle of his creativity, summing up his exploration of different musical forms, genres, and manner of writing. Among his finest compositions from this period are two sets of Impromptus and the Musical Moments that are included in this recording. [Vladimir Feltsman]

David Ponsford is an organist, harpsichordist, musicologist and conductor, and an authority on keyboard music of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He was extremely fortunate to be able to study organ with Peter Hurford, Lionel Rogg and Piet Kee, and harpsichord with Kenneth Gilbert and Gustav Leonhardt. Since 2021, he has taught organ and harpsichord & organ continuo at the Royal Academy of Music, London. The present CD is volume 8 in the series ‘French Organ Music from the Golden Age’, performed by David Ponsford on French historic organs.

Pianist and conductor Vladimir Feltsman is one of the most versatile and constantly interesting musicians of our time. His vast repertoire encompasses music from the Baroque to 20th-century composers. A regular guest soloist with leading symphony orchestras in the United States and abroad, he appears in the most prestigious concert series and music festivals all over the world. Born in Moscow in 1952, Mr. Feltsman debuted with the Moscow Philharmonic at age 11. In 1969, he entered the Moscow Tchaikovsky State Conservatory of Music to study piano under the guidance of Professor Jacob Flier. His debut at Carnegie Hall established him as a major pianist on the American and international scene. A dedicated educator of young musicians, Mr. Feltsman holds the Distinguished Chair of Professor of Piano at the State University of New York, New Paltz, and is a member of the piano faculty at the Mannes College of Music in New York City.

In 2018 I was delighted to accept the challenge of writing a Christmas song for clarinet and higher voices and decided to set one of my favorite medieval poems, I Sing of a Maiden that is Makeless. The poem tells of the miracle of the divine birth and is a paean to the mother of Christ. I became so fascinated with composing for clarinet and upper voices that I found myself writing three more songs, all celebrating the Christmas story. All four songs are grouped under the title, Songs of Celebration and they can be performed separately or as a suite. Oddly, the lyrics for Precious Gift, came to me whilst waiting in an NHS hospital waiting room. Perhaps influenced by my surroundings, I focus on the pain inherent in baby Jesus’ story! An epilogue from the clarinet expressing grief completes the story and turns the mood around in readiness for the final carol. There is No Rose of Such Virtue is another early 15th century poem equating Mary with a vigorously growing rose, a popular metaphor of the time. It was very gratifying to see the children in Gloucester cathedral choir singing this carol with gusto, relishing its beat boxing and glissandi which felt at once incongruously modern and yet perfectly apposite in the cathedral surroundings. (Emma Johnson)

Thomas de Hartmann's output as a composer included four symphonies, several operas, concertos, sonatas, and songs with texts by Marcel Proust, Paul Verlaine, James Joyce, and Percy Bysshe Shelley, as well as fifty-three film scores. The turbulent historical events through which he lived may, however, have kept de Hartmann's music from reaching a wider audience. With the de Hartmann papers now widely available for scholarly examination, the opportunity is ripe for a new look at this composer's unique contributions. Elan Sicroff is one of the leading interpreters of the Gurdjieff/de Hartmann music, which was a result of a unique collaboration in the 1920s in which the sacred and folk music of the East was arranged for piano.

Simon Blendis writes: “Max Jaffa (1911-1991) was the pre-eminent light music violinist of his generation, a universally popular figure with a career spanning seventy years, famous as leader of the Palm Court Orchestra and of his trio, and a household favorite through his regular radio broadcasts. Since 2000 I have been playing on a wonderful Peter Guarnerius violin that previously belonged to him. About three years ago I was offered his sheet music library by his family (whom I’d got to know well in the intervening years), reuniting it with the violin, and during the first Coronavirus lockdown in 2020 my wife, Saoko, and I combed through the violin and piano pieces, discovering and performing in online concerts a huge number of gorgeous salon pieces, some well-known but many forgotten or undiscovered.”

Vladimir Feltsman is one of the most versatile and constantly interesting musicians of our time. His vast repertoire encompasses music from the Baroque to 20th-century composers. A regular guest soloist with leading symphony orchestras in the United States and abroad, he appears in the most prestigious concert series and music festivals all over the world. A dedicated educator of young musicians, Mr. Feltsman holds the distinguished Chair of Professor of Piano at the State University of New York, New Paltz, and is a member of the piano faculty at the Mannes College of Music in New York City.

For composers beyond counting, the sound of bells has been a source of magnetic fascination since time immemorial (figures as disparate as Rachmaninoff and Jonathan Harvey immediately come to mind), but few have hardwired it in their creative psyche as deeply as Augusta Read Thomas. Previous releases in this series have already included a number of such works (Carillon Sky, Resounding Earth, Bells Ring Summer, Ripple Effects), but the present volume is the first one to concentrate upon this long-standing preoccupation. Each of the three major works gathered here is prefaced by a short miniature. On the process of composition, Thomas has said that "it's like living inside of a poem... I think of myself, and have been described as, a poet-composer. I sculpt my music akin to how poets create, refine, and Polish their poems."

On Trio Op. 97 'Archduke' - These musicians have been playing together for a while now, since they met at the Pablo Casals Prades Festival in 2009. In the 'Archduke' Trio there is well-padded playing, lush, warm-toned and full of delicacy: some of the interplay between the strings in the first movement is delightfully light and playful, particularly in the pizzicato passage. The opening of the scherzo has a similar dry delicacy and humour. The worming chromatic passage slithers inexorably into the joyful piano outburst. The opening of the Andante cantabile is a study in note placing, with the slightest touches of rubato and emphases: the two-note string lead into their first melody is itself a small joy. The movement floats along, light, airy and sublime. The finale is earthy, dramatic and elegant. Tim Homfray, The Strad

This is music that is always in motion, as if coming perpetually out of a magician's hat. It leads but doesn't direct, and is playful and subtle, dancing on light feet. It is music that conjures. [The Huffington Post] I think of myself, and have been described as, a poet-composer. I sculpt my music akin to how poets create, refine, and Polish their poems. - Augusta Read Thomas