All the works recorded on this CD have direct associations with recorder pioneer and virtuoso Carl Dolmetsch (1911 - 1997), mainly through his vigorous efforts to encourage the establishment of a contemporary repertoire for the instrument. On 1st February 1939, with Joseph Saxby at the harpsichord, Dolmetsch gave his first recorder rectial at London’s Wigmore Hall. This included the “Theme and Variations” in A minor for descant recorder and harpsichord, a new composition by Dolmetsch himself. He had been keen to include a new work for recorder, but the absence of a significant contemporary repertoire led him to set about the task of composition himself, as much as anything to create an example he hoped others would soon follow.