William Makespeace Thackeray wrote The Rose and the Ring in Rome in 1854 as a "fireside pantomime". At two kingdoms on the Black Sea called Crim Tartary and Paflagonia, a Fairy Godmother bestows the gift of a Rose and a Ring to two princesses, which render them irresistibly attractive to all who behold them, regardless of how old and ugly they may become. However, from being overindulged by their adoring husbands they become lazy, bad tempered and absurdly vain. So when she is invited to be godmother to Prince Giglio and Princess Rosalba, in order that they should have to prove themselves, she sends them a little misfortune which results in their rightful kingdoms being usurped. Consequently on arriving at a subsequent christening, her way is barred by the porter, so she waves her wand transforming him into a door knocker. Twists in the story occur as the Rose and the Ring change hands, at one moment even causing Prince Giglio to sign a wedding contract with the unbecoming old Countess Gruffanuff. Rosalba's misfortune entails her being brought up by lions in teh forest before spending time as a servant at the Palace of King Valaroso where she falls in love with Giglio whose throne has been usurped by his uncle. Characters with names such as Prince Bulbo, Captain Hedzoff, Count Hogginarmo and King Padella all play a part in what follows including a tremendous battle, Rosalba being thrown to the lions, to Gruffanuff claiming her wedding contract at the door of the Cathedral, and Fairy Blackstick dramatically waving her wand to restore Grufanuff's actual husband back from being a doorknocker, so that King Giglio and Queen Rosalba can finally marry.

Your Kiss sets a love poem by e.e. cummings, 'I have found what you are like,' and at first glance it is telling that the poem in question is one that exudes love without ever actually mentioning the word itself. Instead, the perfumes conjured by cummings' words slowly float, swirl and eddy in the air until they finally come to rest on the last two words, which furnish the work's title. As with the words, so with the music, as the soprano similarly floats her rhapsodic melismas, and piano chords gently anchor her in Thomas' harmonic fields. Love knows no time, cummings seems to say, and Thomas slows time down with her music to prove his (and her) point. (Paul Pellay)

Richard Blackford : KalonFor string quartet and string orchestraDuration: c. 25 minutesFormat: 48pp A4 saddle sitched score 4pp 4/4 cover, 44pp 1/1 inner pagesKalon is the classical Greek expression for perfect physical and moral beauty. The three movements explore different aspects of kalon, also the context in which beauty can exist in ugliness and darkness. The string quartet assumes a different persona for each movement, like an actor adopting a different mask for three acts of a play. A feature of the music is the independence of the two string groups which, in the first two movements, predominantly play in independent tempi. Even when in tempo unison the two groups have musical lives of their own, either complimenting each other or interrupting and making dramatic contrasts. The first and third movements are fast and celebratory, enjoying the clear tempo independence of the two groups. The second, by far the longest, blurs the musical contours and, with its two central quotes from Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 13 Opus 130, is an elegy for those forced to create kalon in the midst of death and suffering. The title “Beklemmt” refers to the eight-bar passage in the Beethoven’s Cavatina movement in which the first violin becomes disassociated from the rest of the quartet, almost as if the “oppressed, stifled, anguished” melody of its title has become lost in another world. I am indebted to Martyn Brabbins for his practical advice on composing in two simultaneous tempi and for convincing me that Kalon can be performed with one conductor, rather than with two. Also my thanks to John Pickard for his support and encouragement, especially when I despaired of making the piece work as I had imagined it.Richard Blackford

Ustad Mashkoor Ali Khan comes from a distinguished musical line that includes some of the foremost figures in Indian Classical music. A direct descendant of the family of the great Ustad Abdul karim Khan and the legendary Sartaj-e-Mousiqui Ustad Abdul Wahid Khan, Maskhoor Ali is the son of the great Sarangi-nawaz Padmashree Ustad Shakoor Khan. Initiated and trained by his father for fifteen years, young Mashkoor Ali had secured a place for himself in teh world of music at a young age. He has recently appeared at such prestigious events as the Sangeet Natak Akademi Festival, Delhi, Harballav Sangeet Sammelan, Jalandhar, Saptak Festival and many others. His awards are many, but include the Sangeet Natak Akademi Puraskar by the Sangeet Natak Akademi and the Gandharva Award by the Hindusthan Art & Music Society, Kolkata, 2012.

There are only six dynamics used in this score (pp, p, mp, mf, f, ff) so that each "level" of volume has a clear meaning and sound. Very often dynamics are staggered and layered; thus it is especially important that musicians play their individual dynamics and not be swayed to change their dynamic if someone is playing a great deal quieter or louder. The words "sempre" and "subito" are used to help clarify the layered dynamic textures. Occasionally, where there are short instrumental soli, the term "rubato" is used and means that it is not necessary to mechanically play the exact rhythm (sextuplet, quintuplet, small triplet, etc.) but rather that one can consider those rhythms more gesturally. "Rubato" does not mean to drastically slow down or speed up the tempo. This music should be performed along with acrobats or dancers when feasible. Flute can be substituted by soprano saxophone, oboe or clarinet; Bass clarinet can be substituted by tenor saxophone or bassoon.

Richard Blackford writes: "The seven prints I chose from Hokusai's immense output of Ukiyo-e, or "pictures from the floating world", represent landscapes, seascapes and scenes from Japanese town and country life around the iconic Mount Fuji. Whereas some movements are inspired by a single picture, others are composites of many scenes or visual variations on a theme. In responding musically to Hokusai's genius for capturing the essence of an image I concentrated mainly on pictures that evoke movement and dynamism (II A Sudden Gust of Wind: III Waterfalls: VI A Wild Sea at Choshi). By contrast, the central movement A Friend Departing In Snow has a stillness that is only broken by the yearning for the departing friend. Thematically the set of seven miniatures are framed by the two outer movements devoted to the eternal fascination of Mount Fuji. The Fuji theme, like an id�e fixe, recurs in the inner movements, especially in A Sudden Gust of Wind. Similarly, other themes such as the rising cello theme in II, appears in extended form in VI and the elegiac viola theme of III is developed as a principle countersubject to the Fuji theme in VII. Seven Hokusai Miniatures attempts musical explorations of Hokusai's flair for stylisation, humour, parody, the grotesque and calm. Although some movements incorporate formal musical structures (rondo, variation, hocket, canon, inversion) my hope is that they display a lightness of touch and freedom that is reflected in the incomparable mastery of image by the great Japanese master."

I am a comparative latecomer to writing isntrumental music, having devoted most of my creative life to choral and vocal composition. The works on this album are all written over the last decade, with the exception of my Violin Concerto which plunders material from an incomplete Violin Sonata written when I was eighteen. As well as the Violin Concerto this album includes: my darkly chromatic Clarinet Quintet," The Better Angels of Our Nature," a short concerto for oboe and strings; and "Goodfellow," for flute, oboe and piano. They are presented chronologically and I hope the listener will detect a logical sequence in their development. (Richard Blackford, August 2016)

Augusta Read Thomas writes: “The Webster’s Dictionary definition of the noun brio reads in part: “Let’s give this celebration the brio it deserves! — vigor, vivacity, gusto, verve, zest, enthusiasm, vitality, dynamism, animation, spirit, energy; informal pep, vim, get-up-and-go.” I care about craft, clarity, and passion. My works are organic and, at every level, concerned with transformations and connections. The carefully sculpted musical materials of Brio are agile and energized, and their flexibility allows a way to braid harmonic, rhythmic, and contrapuntal elements that are constantly transformed — at times whimsical and light, at times jazzy, at times layered and reverberating. Across Brio’s 11-minute duration, it unfolds a labyrinth of musical interrelationships and connections that showcase the musicians of the Des Moines Symphony in a virtuosic display of rhythmic agility, counterpoint, skill, energy, dynamic range, clarity, and majesty. Throughout the kaleidoscopic journey, the work passes through many lively and colorful episodes and, via an extended, gradual crescendo, reaches a full-throttle, sparkling intensity — imagine a coiled spring releasing its energy to continuously propel the musical discourse. Vivid, clangorous, brassy, and blazing, Brio culminates in music of enthusiastic, intrepid (almost Stravinsky-like) spirits while never losing its sense of dance, caprice, and effervescence.”

Augusta read thomas :rainbow bridge to paradise (2016)For Solo CelloDuration: c. 4½ minutesFormat: 8-page A4 saddle stitched sheet musicAlso available for solo violin (NMP1043) and solo viola (NMP1044)“Rainbow Bridge to Paradise starts at the very bottom note of the cello, in the deep, rich, elegant tones of the instrument and traverses to the very bright, clear, clean, optimistic top register of the instrument. This music’s vibrant, expressive and distinct ‘picture’ is one of an ascent from earth to paradise across a colorful bridge.” Augusta Read Thomas

Julius Röntgen : Sonate in A minor for solo piano (1898)For solo pianoDuration: c. 26 minutesFormat: 60-page A4 sheet musicAvailable on CD, NI5966

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.

Augusta read thomas :rainbow bridge to paradise (2016)For Solo ViolaDuration: c. 4½ minutesFormat: 8-page A4 saddle stitched sheet musicAlso available for solo violin (NMP1043) and solo cello (NMP1045)“Rainbow Bridge to Paradise starts at the very bottom note of the cello, in the deep, rich, elegant tones of the instrument and traverses to the very bright, clear, clean, optimistic top register of the instrument. This music’s vibrant, expressive and distinct ‘picture’ is one of an ascent from earth to paradise across a colorful bridge.” Augusta Read Thomas

Augusta read thomas : chi (2017)For string quartetDuration: c. 14 minutesFormat: 40-page A4 saddle stitched score & 4 A4 saddle stitched partsAvailable on CD, NI6355​​​​​​​"Chi is based on the Chinese concept of life force. There was plenty of life force running through this concise work, which engaged. Chi said a lot in less than 15 minutes and I’d welcome the chance to hear it again, as well as more from Thomas."Mr. Leslie Gerber, The Boston Musical Intelligencer

Gerald Reynolds writes: "This edition marks the first publication of the R�ntgen's Sonata in C-sharp Minor (1928). I was first introduced to the work while visiting the composer's grandson Jurriaan R�ntgen in Amsterdam during the summer of 2015, at which time Mr. R�ntgen generously gave me a recording of the work. I was immediately taken with the piece and resolved to find the score, record and edit it with the hope of bringing it to the wider attention of pianists and piano aficionados with a new publication of it, through my relationship with Nimbus Publishing, UK. Previously, the Sonata in C-sharp minor (1928) existed in manuscript form in three versions designated as A, B (catalogue # 107/062B also with the date 14 Dec '28 in pencil on the title page) and C (catalogue # 107/062C - no date). All originals are located in the R�ntgen archives at the Nederlands Muziek Instituut, Den Haag, The Netherlands."

The Parker Quartet is widely known and respected for their inspiring performances, dazzling sound, and remarkable musicianship. The Grammy-Award-winning ensemble was founded in, and is currently based in Boston. The group has a vastly varied repertoire, ranging from classical to contemporary compositions. They have rapidly set themselves apart as one of the most trailblazing ensembles of its generation. The group is sought after worldwide, and appears at prestigious venues across North and South America, Europe, and South Korea. For the Quartet, the music of Felix Mendelssohn is rejuvenating. There is no other composer who can better channel the youthful soul that all of us have inside. This joyful music captures the spirit of life, which the Parker Quartet amplifies with their irresistible energy.