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We recommend five works to explore after Clarke’s Viola Sonata
Shostakovich’s Sonata contains quotes from all 15 of his symphonies
Shortly before composing her Viola Sonata, Rebecca Clarke performed her Morpheus for viola and piano to great acclaim in New York – though the work was listed in the programme as being by one ‘Anthony Trent’. The gorgeous seven-minute piece is both dreamy and folky, with a mesmerisingly rippling piano part. (Helen Callus (viola), Robert Mcdonald (piano) ASV CDDCA1130).
Following hot on the heels of Clarke’s
Viola Sonata was Arnold Bax’s Viola Sonata of 1922. Dedicated to the famous violist Lionel Tertis, with whom Bax himself premiered the work, the Sonata is decidedly fickle in character in its first movement, lilting and lyrical here, fidgety and angst-ridden there. A fast and furious Allegro follows – though here too there are moments of repose – before Bax takes us into the darker recesses of his mind with the Molto Lento finale. (Martin Outram (viola), Julian Rolton (piano) Naxos 8.557784). Like Clarke, Hindemith was an exceptionally talented violist who wrote a number of pieces for his instrument. These include 1919’s Sonata for Viola and Piano, Op. 11, No. 4, composed soon after Hindemith had returned from active service in World War I. Consisting of a short opening Phantasie followed by two sets of variations, the Sonata is Romantic in character, with both French and Russian inflections. (Kim Kashkashian (viola), Robert Levin (piano) ECM 8.333092).
Also dating from 1919 is Granville Bantock’s Viola Sonata. If the work’s subtitle ‘Colleen’, alluding to a wellknown folksong, gives a hint of the English composer’s love of all things Celtic, the Irish jig heard in the final movement leaves us in no doubt. (Sarah-jane Bradley (viola), Christian Wilson (piano) Naxos 8.572761).
Shostakovich’s Viola Sonata would prove to be his last ever work – completed in July 1975, a month before his death, it was premiered posthumously by its dedicatee
Fyodor Druzhinin later that year. As if intentionally looking back over his often fraught life, the Sonata contains direct quotes from all 15 of his own symphonies and his opera The Gamblers, plus allusions to composers such as Berg and Beethoven. (Isabelle van Keulen (viola), Ronald Brautigam (piano) Challenge Classics CC72071).