Viola Sonatas

[teamsaint]

A bit of a niche, I suppose, but no doubt there is gold to be discovered.

Recommendations, youtube links, upcoming performances , whatever please.

The Shostakovich and the Bliss are both excellent works,favourites of mine anyway.

There is a sonata for solo viola by Nurymov, in his trademark style, which I’ll post a link for if I can find it. And very good it is too.

( Shall we start without transcriptions and see how it goes?)

Edit: here is the Nurymov

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=x8-4-QMZqmQ

[Pulcinella]

A bit of a niche, I suppose, but no doubt there is gold to be discovered.

Recommendations, youtube links, upcoming performances , whatever please.

The Shostakovich and the Bliss are both excellent works,favourites of mine anyway.

There is a sonata for solo viola by Nurymov, in his trademark style, which I’ll post a link for if I can find it. And very good it is too.

( Shall we start without transcriptions and see how it goes?)

Edit: here is the Nurymov
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=x8-4-QMZqmQ

The Bliss and Shostakovich are the only two I can think of that are in my CD collection; I suspect that I need the Rebecca Clarke.
The recording of the Shostakovich that I have (Tabea Zimmermann and Hartmut Höll) has the original (1950) version of Britten's Lachrymae (Opus 48) and Stravinsky's Elegie for solo viola as couplings; neither of them are sonatas, but they are both worthy of consideration as 'extras' to the thread.

[vinteuil]

.

... there is the Mendelssohn :

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00Q6TATDW

.

[Edgy 2]

In addition to those ts.

Rebecca Clarke,absolute masterpiece.
Malcolm Arnold Op 17
Bax,Sonata plus other pieces
2 by York Bowen
Are the 2 Brahms ones transcriptions or were they written for clarinet OR viola?
Of course Weinberg's (yep him again) 4 Sonatas for solo viola

[Richard Barrett]

The viola sonatas are a couple of the few works of Brahms that I really like. Yes, OK, they were clarinet sonatas originally, but I think the viola suits them better, plus the adaptations were made by Brahms himself so they're by no means unauthentic. Hindemith's op.11 no.4 is a beautiful one too, I'm a bit hazy on his other viola sonatas but that one is highly memorable. Martinu's 1955 sonata is quite nice too, as is Henze's sonata.

[Edgy 2]

The viola sonatas are a couple of the few works of Brahms that I really like. Yes, OK, they were clarinet sonatas originally, but I think the viola suits them better, plus the adaptations were made by Brahms himself so they're by no means unauthentic.

Oh yes I much prefer them as viola sonatas

[teamsaint]

Lots of Hindemith. Any experts on these out there?

[Pulcinella]

Lots of Hindemith. Any experts on these out there?

Well, he was a viola player, so they should be good.
But then wasn't Bridge too; did he write any?
(Yes, I know I could Google, but.....)

[Richard Barrett]

Lots of Hindemith. Any experts on these out there?

He wrote unaccompanied sonatas as well as viola and piano sonatas. Of the latter, as I said above, op.11/4 sticks in my mind. You can find a live performance on Youtube with Bashmet and Richter.

[Edgy 2]

Well, he was a viola player, so they should be good.
But then wasn't Bridge too; did he write any?
(Yes, I know I could Google, but.....)

Bridge started one but didn't finish it think

[Pulcinella]

Looking at recordings of the Clarke on the Presto site (just ordered the Naxos version) threw up some other interesting works as couplings: a sonata by Vieuxtemps and a concert piece by Enescu, for example.
Maybe there is a vein of gold, ts.

[teamsaint]

They sound interesting, Pulcers.I just found one from 2012 by Graham Waterhouse, which has been recorded on Guild, and is on Apple Music, and to which I am listening.Definitely worth a spin.

I have listened to something else of his in the past I think, but can’t recall what it was.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyhWWyDHIfM

... the work is included in this delectable collection:

https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDH55085

[visualnickmos]

I wish there was more music for the viola - I think it really is a very beautiful sound.

[Richard Barrett]

I wish there was more music for the viola - I think it really is a very beautiful sound.

There's actually quite a lot though, especially since the early 20th century. Otherwise, sorry to go off the sonata topic, but here is a wonderful live performance of what I think is the first concerto written for it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WX4W...&start_radio=1