"It came as a pleasant suprise when EMI asked me if I would like to record the Elgar Violin Concerto with Sir Simon Rattle to celebrate their centenary. During my self-imposed absence from the performance of straight classical music, as well as progressing with the Jimi Hendrix project which is still in progress and very close to my heart, I had also finished an album of British music, namely 'Kafka', a collection of my own songs. If this had gone badly I would have immediately continued to write in the same vein and make sure it went well the next time. As it happened, though, I and the other musicians finished an album of which I was very proud artistically, so the timing was perfect to move on to another form of music. That this music should have reflected a British heritage is a sweet coincidence, because a lot of the music on 'Kafka' did as well.

My first reaction to being asked to make this album was of being flattered that after a few years away from classical forms EMI should still be interested in a concerto album from me and that Sir Simon Rattle showed interest in continuing a relationship that started when we recorded the Sibelius Violin Concerto. Having already made a recording of the Elgar, albeit twelve years ago, with Vernon Handley - who as well as being a great Elgarian was one of the first people to understand what I was after in this concerto and encouraged me in that direction - it was important to me to find a partner for an equal interpretation of this masterpiece. The suggestion of Sir Simon Rattle and the orchestra he has made great, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, struck me at once as being an exciting and adventurous proposition through which I could extend my developing perspective on the work. As with any artist who records a work twice, there are bound to be comparisons. For what it is worth, I see my first recording with Vernon Handley as being more text-book orientated and the one with Sir Simon as being more along the lines of the playing of Jacqueline du Pré or Artur Rubenstein, i.e. portraying the emotional moments empathetically but still with a regard for the structure, so that the text-book can be pushed aside.

The other equally exciting and important aspect of this album for me is my first recording of Vaughan Williams's 'Lark Ascending'. In this work the British heritage - English to be more specific - is even more marked but the originality no less. There is no one way of doing things and as far as preparation is concerned this album yet again proved that. Sir Simon and I worked very hard together on our interpretation of the Elgar, whereas with the Vaughan Williams the timeless mood and exquisite orchestration created a predestined calm on all of us and very little needed to be said before we were happy with the result.

For me, in whichever category, good music doesn't occur without honesty, empathy and nobility existing alongside the more commonplace attributes such as grandeur, intensity, fun etc. And for this to happen in a way that you suddenly get hit in the stomach by the depth of the emotional realms of the music, whether as an interpreter or composer, it seems to me that the qualities of an 'idiot savant' frequently serve better than those of a learned historian: because it is the feeling of discovery that really makes it worth listening to music, not knowing it all in the first place. I hope that my contribution to this album has at least gone some way towards embracing the above concept."

All the best,