This recording is dedicated to the Judaeo-Christian legacy of European musical expression and the struggle for life and freedom in the twentieth-century. Petr Eben (1929-2007) was born in Bohemia to a Jewish father in a family that adopted the Catholic faith. His was a life of determination, overcoming suffering, and of great humanity. He was at Buchenwald during the Second World War and after the war refused to join the Communist party, while openly practicing his faith. A true master and hero of twentieth-century art, Eben’s talent was recognised already in his early childhood. He was renowned for his mastery of organ improvisation. Windows was composed in 1976. It was inspired by Mark Chagall’s twelve stained glass windows at the Abbell Synagogue at the Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem. Each window describes a son of Jacob, depicts his character, includes a biblical reference, and details the geographical area where each tribe resided in the land of the Hebrews. Chagall wrote the following dedication: "This is my modest gift to the Jewish people who have always dreamt of biblical love, friendship and of peace among all peoples. This is my gift to that people which lived here thousands of years ago among the other Semitic people." Marc Chagall, 6 February 1962 Eben selected four of Chagall’s windows, thereby giving the work a four-movement structure. Each movement portrays the character and literal message presented in the window. George Enescu (1881-1955), like Eben, was a child prodigy. He was sent to Paris from Romania at an early age and became a violinist, pianist, conductor and composer. Enescu’s stature remains high in Romania today, where he is revered as one of the great cultural figures of the twentieth - century. Composed in 1906, Legend is a short masterpiece for trumpet dedicated to Professor Merri Franquin at the Paris Conservatoire. I chose Legend for this recording as it presents a milestone in the trumpet repertoire. Its dreamy qualities also set it apart from the generally stern and deeply emotional repertoire elsewhere on this album. While utilizing the techniques perfected by the late nineteenth-century cornet masters Jean-Baptiste Arban, Jules Levy and many others, Legend places the trumpet in a context of ‘serious’ and programmatic music with sounds reminiscent of Massenet and Wagner. The Sonata for Trumpet and Organ opus 200 (1962) is made of three semi-improvised chants. Alan Hovahness (1911-2000) the American composer of Armenian and Scottish descent, brings out the style and deep emotion of slow-moving Armenian chant, played over tone clusters in the organ part. Following his popular trumpet and organ composition Prayer for St Gregory, Hovahness takes the listener further down the path of ambient soundscape filled with expression and lament. Like Windows and the Hindemith sonata, the duality and contrast between the keyboard and the trumpet create tremendous emotional power. The influence of German composer Paul Hindemith (1895-1963) on twentieth- century music is vast. An originator of a tonal system in his own compositions, conductor, violist and a committed pedagogue; Hindemith saw himself as a bearer of German musical tradition. He brought his art and knowledge to as diverse places as Turkey in the 1930’s, and America in the 1940’s and 50’s. The Sonata for Trumpet and Piano (1939) is one of the most influencial compositions in the twentieth-century trumpet repertoire. It is part of a body of work, spread over decades, in which Hindemith wrote music for almost all orchestral solo instruments. In 1938 Hindemith left Germany for Switzerland. It was there, in 1939, a year before his move to the United States and while watching the disturbing political developments in his home land, that he composed the Sonata for Trumpet and Piano. The musical language and structure of the composition are intense and unsettling; from the first note, to the last decaying B-flat of the final treatment of J S Bach’s chorale Alle Menchen müssen Sterben (All people must die).