EM Records is delighted to present "Exploring Spirit", a disc the central concept of which is the profoundly transformative effect of a questioning, explorative treatment of musical material and the sense of vividness and invigoration that such an approach can bring. The recording is dedicated to the memory of Robert Luck, father of the violinist on the disc, who died the day before the recording sessions began, and whose life personified the questing outlook that "Exploring Spirit" celebrates. The disc opens with Peter Maxwell Davies's "Sonata for Violin Alone", a set of 22 variations on a wide-ranging and richly contrasted theme, different variations each exploring certain aspects of the work's opening minutes. Rather than a "Theme and Variations" in the traditionally classical sense, it is a rhapsodic unfolding - a kaleidoscopic expansion - that enrichens and enlivens the material, revealing subtleties and relationships not at first apparent.

• Label: IMPORTS
• Genre: Classical