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The way in which composers influence each other, whether across generations or more directly through the master – pupil relationships that they often cultivate fascinates me. The comparison of William Byrd's 'pervasive' influence on the Elizabethan/Jacobean world with the impact that Arnold Schoenberg left on the twentieth Century, by Joseph Kerman, inspired the repertoire frame on this disk. Karim Said chose a selection of keyboard music, whether for the modern piano or the virginals of sixteenth-century England, to indulge in the astonishing versatility with which these instruments have been used across the centuries. Byrd, Tomkins, Bull and Morley simply couldn't have imagined the sound of modern pianos today. However, Said "like[s] to think that they would have loved it. To my ears, it would have formed yet another colour to the palette of instruments that they enjoyed, perhaps establishing a more direct link with their string consort music, my own recent introduction to the world of Renaissance music as an ardent fan of the ensemble Phantasm. Through its director Laurence Dreyfus, who has been the most inspiring of mentors throughout the different stages of this album's evolution, I could not have wished for a better guide to what is admittedly new territory for me as a pianist. My introduction to the Second Viennese School, on the other hand, came in 2009 when I was privileged enough to start touring Alban Berg's Chamber Concerto with fellow members of the West Eastern Divan, under the direction of one the world's leading authorities in this field, Daniel Barenboim."