Walk the mountains and the valleys, touch the lakes and rivers, smell the clean air and pine forest, see bleak winter wildness and spring flowers exploding, pause so you don't disturb the wildlife; watch, and be watched! Later inhale the faint smoke from distant warming fires and the food they cook. Embrace the day, and mould your thoughts and creativity. These are some of the life experiences had by Grieg, Rautavaara, Abrahamsen and Sibelius, who form the featured composers on this new recording.

The concept of recording this CD was born during the uncertain times of the pandemic in 2020, when musicians were facing a great deal of instability and personal connections became restricted. As live music came to a halt in the UK and Europe, trumpeter Oscar Whight found himself taking on the role of Principal Trumpet in the Cairo Symphony Orchestra for a period of 10 months. This unexpected journey became the backdrop for the first piece commissioned for this recording, Winter Journeys by Martin Butler. On his return to the UK, Oscar collaborated with other renowned British composers and these exciting new works for trumpet and piano are now showcased in this album. This project provided a wonderful opportunity to bring together a diverse programme of fresh and exhilarating music which is uncompromising in it's ambition, yet can connect immediately with the listener. The programme encompasses a wide range of styles and techniques, showcasing the trumpet's versatility. From technically demanding passages that push the instrument to it's limits, to simple melodies that highlight it's inherent vocal qualities, each piece requires a unique approach. The title Nexus not only symbolises the desire to present music that connects, but is also representative of the various connections that brought this CD to fruition. Artistic working relationships create friendships and Oscar was fortunate to collaborate with the talented pianist Zeynep ozsuca for this recording, who also happens to be a neighbour. Two of the composers featured on this recording are contemporaries of Oscar's father Michael: Martin Butler was a member of the Hampshire County Youth Orchestra with him, and Mark Anthony Turnage studied at the Royal College of Music at the same time as Michael. The artwork for this disc, titled Pathways, was created by Stuart Hartley, a family friend whose work perfectly complements the theme of connections explored in this album.

The pan flute holds a significant place in Romanian folk music, with Gheorghe Zamfir pioneering flute techniques in the '80s, elevating it to a concert level worldwide. In the hands of Zamfir, the pan flute becomes an instrument equal to traditional orchestral instruments, offering endless expressive colours and technical capabilities for playing modern music. Surprisingly, there is a lack of large original compositions for the pan flute. Therefore, writing two original compositions for this instrument and a modern orchestra is a revolutionary and groundbreaking project, providing justice to the pan flute and offering future players a challenging musical and technical work. Elia Cmiral is best known for his film scores, most natably Ronin which influenced Hans Zimmer's use of the deduk in his score for Gladiator. Gheorghe Zamfir met composer Elia Cmiral whilst collaborating on a short film for which he composed the score. Gheorghe played solo on a few tracks. During this period, their connection deepened, with a shared appreciation for musical aesthetics and a mutual love for emotionally resonant melodies. Their joint understanding continued after the completion of the film, evolving into a cross-continental friendship - Cmiral in Los Angeles, US, and Gheorghe in Bucharest, Romania.

Lures for Feeling takes it's name from Welsh composer Richard Elfyn Jones' Piano Sonata No. 2, which derives from an assertion by one of his philosophical heroes, Alfred North Whitehead, who wrote that the actual world is essentially the outcome of 'an aesthetic order derived from the immanence of God.' His book Music and The Numinous aims to clarify this in the light of the composer's own experience as one who, when exercising his creative freedom, has always felt that elements outside oneself have a controlling role in one's work. In his case, and certainly in that of many tonal composers, it is the obvious demands of the God-given harmonic series that is the rather obvious pointer towards the numinous character of music in it's various aspects, whether or not the composer or his/her audience is aware of that. This album also includes his Piano Sonata No. 1, Fantasy Evocations and other recent works, including the heartfelt Threnody for Ukraine. Christopher Williams is well-known through is acclaimed recordings for Grand Piano and Willowhayne Records.

Recorded in Willowhayne Records 10th anniversary year in 2022, St Albans Experience is the tenth in their Experience series. This recording showcases every facet of the magnificent Harrison & Harrison organ of St Albans Cathedral, in music from the Baroque era to contemporary works for the instrument. Central to this programme is Maurice Durufle's beautiful Prelude, Adagio et Choral Varie sur le Veni Creator, Op. 4. This recital includes several world premiere recordings, including Francis Pott's Laudes, Rhian Samuel's three-movement Ad Lucem, and two works by the late Peter Hurford - for twenty years Master of the Music at St Albans Cathedral, and the driving force behind this world-renowned instrument. Also included are works by Peter Dickinson and Anthony Gilbert, who passed away earlier in 2023, and to whose memory the recording is dedicated.

Following her highly praised debut album, Yasmin Rowe returns to Willowhayne Records for an engaging and delightful programme, in which she returned to Holy Trinity Church, Hereford for this recording. Now resident in Melbourne, Australia, Yasmin has gained critical acclaim as a soloist, collaborator and recording artist in Europe, Asia and Australia. As well as her concert hall recitals, she has given many free-to-air concerts As well as her concert hall recitals, she gives many live-to-air performances, appearing as a frequent guest on Melbourne-based 3MBS Radio since 2019.

In this new recording of contemporary works for saxophone and piano, Max Goldberg and Annabel Thwaite present a programme of contemporary works by European, American and Australian composers, including the world premiere recording of Welsh composer Edward-Rhys Harry's The Ballad of Lady Barham, the philanthropist who established schools and churches in the Gower peninsula through her own funding. Max Goldberg demonstrates the lyrical and expressive qualities of the saxophone as a solo instrument throughout this recording.

Pianist Helen Davies is the daughter of a Bohemian mother and Anglo-German father and her family has always been acutely aware of their European heritage. Connections was conceived during the COVID-19 UK lockdown in March 2020. Much of the music on this recording was created by German composers, hence the decision to focus on that link, recording music which they felt connected them back to some of their familial roots. Music is an international language, unaffected by boundaries and this is celebrated in this recording. The inclusion of the little Rondo by the British composer Arnold Cooke embodies this continental link: Cooke studied composition with the German composer Paul Hindemith who had a strong influence on his style and whose musical language can be clearly heard in Cooke's short composition. In keeping with the connections theme, Laurence Davies uses a German horn, an Alexander model 103 made in Mainz for this recording.

Celebrated pianist-composer Julian Jacobson, acclaimed for the colour, vitality and insight he brings to his performances, presents three of Beethoven's most iconic piano sonatas in this recording. Julian is well know for his Beethoven "marathons", performing all 32 of his sonatas from memory in a day, most recently in November 2022 in celebration of his 75th birthday. "It soon became clear that the pianist's mastery of Beethoven's idiom was such he could easily have improvised himself out of any momentary difficulty" was how one critic described one of his marathon performances.

Born in Germany, Holger started playing classical piano at the age of eight and turned to jazz and blues at fourteen. In 1997 he moved to England to study piano, jazz piano and composition at the London College of Music, graduating in 2000 with a first-class honors Degree, followed by an MMus in jazz piano at the Leeds College of Music. Since graduating he's been a sought-after pianist, keyboard player, composer and MD. During his career so far he has performed and recorded worldwide alongside artists such as Katrina and the Waves, Jacky Cheung, Pete King, Jeff Clyne, Tina May, John Wheatcroft, Cameroon Pierre, Alan Barnes, Taka Boom, Tony Hawks, Katie Price, Anita Dobson, The Counterfeit Stones, Warwick Davis, Pete Cunnah (D-Ream), John Surman, and many others. Career highlights include being featured as a pianist/composer and arranger on Jacky Cheungs no 1 album Private Corner (multi-platinum status), performing at the BBC Proms in the park (in front of 45000 spectators) and winning the Westminster prize for improvisation. Holger has also written and produced music for film, TV and advertising and is currently a lecturer at the Institute of Contemporary Music Performance in London where he teaches on the Degree and Masters programmes.

Classical guitarist Alison Smith presents a collection of expressive, lyrical, soulful and evocative music that has been inspired by a poem, title, story or emotion. Many of the works are world premiere recordings, with 9 of them composed or arranged by William Lovelady, whose works for guitar have been performed worldwide, as well as being broadcast on radio and television. The highly acclaimed British born classical guitarist Alison Smith has been described as one of the most exciting and lyrical guitarists to emerge in recent years. She delights audiences with her fluid technique and expressive playing, performing nationwide and in Europe. Her previous albums entitled Recuerdos and Incandescent, have been highly successful. She has recently been engaged by Willowhayne Records to become one of their artists and Poetico is her first album under their label.

Jonathan Hope returns to Willowhayne Records to present the sixth release in their critically acclaimed 'Experience' series. Played on the stunning Harrison & Harrison organ of St Mary Redcliffe, Bristol, (of which Arthur Harrison considered the instrument his best work), Jonathan Hope has chosen a selection of pieces that are perfectly suited to show off all the colors of this magnificent instrument, with the album including his own transcriptions of Brahms' Tragic Overture and Elgar's In the South (Alassio). Several of the works on this release are receiving here their world premiere recordings.

This recording not only celebrates multiple centenaries of Malcolm Arnold, Ruth Gipps, and Dennis Brain (the dedicatee of the Arnold concerto) who were all born in 1921 - but also three composers whose musical language and worlds bear striking similarities. Both Arnold and Gipps were writing at a time when the grain of musical fashion was going against them. It was composers such as Pierre Boulez, Luigi Nono, and Karlheinz Stockhausen from the Darmstadt school who were the intellectual vanguard of the time, the music much more experimental, serialist, and philosophical in its makeup. In contrast to this, Arnold and Gipps placed euphony (as traditionally conceived) higher on the priority list. With the Horn Concerto in F by Christoph Schönberger, we have a similar situation for the 21st century. The composer describes his work as being in the neo-Romantic style, the structure and harmony of the work traditional in nature with a nonetheless unique aesthetic. 
 
This recording sheds fresh light on works that are in dire need of more performances, as well as highlighting the wonderful potential of the horn as a solo instrument for the 21st century.

Treble & Trumpet are here to introduce children to the wonders of classical music (and hopefully entertain the grown-ups as well) with The Classical Nursery. Favorite nursery rhymes vividly brought to life by opera singer Lucy Knight, with brand new symphonic accompaniments including performances by members of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Praised in Opera Magazine for her “exquisite singing and acting”, British soprano Lucy Knight is a Britten-Pears Young Artist, winner of the Making Music Award for Young Concert Artists and the International Opera Awards Foundation. Born in London, Lucy studied Music at Cambridge University and began her career as an Apprentice of the Monteverdi Choir, before training at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and English National Opera. Lucy frequently appears as a concert soloist with many of UK’s major orchestras.

Matthew Coleridge's beautiful and moving Requiem was written in 2016. Choosing to omit certain sections such as the Dies Irae and In Paradisum, the Requiem shows an affinity towards the music of Ockeghem, de La Rue and Richafort. The work is a tribute to a departed soul, the solo cello part can perhaps be seen as an embodiment of that soul. "A valuable addition to the 21st century choral repertoire" - Sir Neville Marriner. The composer writes: “Requiem is my first major composition and most frequently performed work. Far from being inspired by, or in memory of, a lost loved one, I wrote the majority of it in the months following the birth of my son. I hope this brings an optimistic, affirming and uplifting mood to the music. I was determined to avoid any clichés of angelic harps or fires of hell, and chose to take a more human and earthly approach - something more akin to the Requiems of the middle ages and Renaissance. Much of the writing is in the manner of Gregorian chant, with numerous melodic ‘threads’ woven together into a rich tapestry of sound. The solo cello became a vital part of the music from some of the earliest drafts, providing a counterpoint of light against dark. Whenever the choir are singing about loss or sorrow, the cello sings a song of hope and comfort.”