Ilan Rogoff made two visits to the Nimbus Studio in Monmouth, in August and September 1978. At this time the directors were regularly experimenting with 'Directto-Disc' recording: a process that eliminated magnetic tape as a storage medium, cutting the sound directly onto a shellac platter from which the LP masters could be created. The technical advantage was in the elimination of the limitations of tape, the introduction of small amounts of noise and distortion, the disadvantage was in the necessity to find a performer capable of giving a faultless performance lasting for the full duration of an LP side - about 25 minutes - without stopping. Ilan Rogoff had the temperament and technical strength to accept the challenge and all three works on this release were made under those conditions. Unfortunately shellac platters are very fragile, nothing of them has survived. However, as a back-up precaution, tape machines were running during the sessions and they have provided the source for this release, nearly thirty-years later. The Schumann and Schubert works were released on LP - although not as 'Direct Cuts' as the company did not yet have it's own manufacturing plant capable of handling them. The Brahms Intermezzi are receiving their first release. They are complete, unedited takes. Interestingly the Brahms session, which also included a less successful recording of the Bach-Busoni Chacone, took place just sixteen days before Bernard Roberts's first session of 'Directto-Disc' Beethoven Piano Sonatas. It seems that Ilan had been present at the moment the process came together. © Adrian Farmer