Katharina Kang Litton, Andrew Litton – Kornauth & Fuchs: Works for Viola & Piano (2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz]

Katharina Kang Litton, Andrew Litton – Kornauth & Fuchs: Works for Viola & Piano (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:15:23 minutes | 2,42 GB | Genre: Musique de chambre
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BIS

In the spring of 2020, the Covid pandemic caused turmoil in the concert diaries of most musicians, including the conductor Andrew Litton and his wife Katharina Kang Litton, principal violist of New York City Ballet. To find an outlet for their musical expression they began to explore the repertoire for viola and piano together. Having played the Sonatas by Brahms they came across the music by two other Viennese composers, Brahms’ near-contemporary Robert Fuchs and his student Egon Kornauth. Fuchs – who the less-than-effusive Brahms called “a splendid musician” – had a long and distinguished career at the Vienna Conservatory where his other students included such composers as Mahler, Wolf, Sibelius, Zemlinsky and Korngold.

That the Sonatas recorded here were composed around the same time as Schoenberg’s Second String Quartet can be hard to believe – as is the fact that Fuchs’s Phantasiestücke (composed in his 80th and final year) was contemporary with Bartók’s Piano Concerto No. 1. But if they are not in any way pioneering, all three works are beautifully achieved: formally both strong and flexible, with a subtle, deeply-felt emotional colouring of their own.

The Litton Duo close the recital with a piece that has a personal significance for the two – an arrangement of the Korean folk song Arirang which they received as a wedding present from Stephen Hough.

Tracklist:
01. Katharina Kang Litton – I. Fest und bestimmt (08:50)
02. Katharina Kang Litton – II. Langsam, sehr ausdrucksvoll (08:54)
03. Katharina Kang Litton – III. Wild und stürmisch (09:05)
04. Katharina Kang Litton – No. 1, Ländler Tempo (04:13)
05. Katharina Kang Litton – No. 2, Ruhig und ausdrucksvoll (04:25)
06. Katharina Kang Litton – No. 3, Leicht bewegt (03:53)
07. Katharina Kang Litton – No. 4, Andante sostenuto con espressione (04:06)
08. Katharina Kang Litton – No. 5, Mäßig bewegt (03:18)
09. Katharina Kang Litton – No. 6, Allegretto con delicatezza (04:40)
10. Katharina Kang Litton – I. Allegro moderato, ma passionato (08:48)
11. Katharina Kang Litton – II. Andante grazioso (06:42)
12. Katharina Kang Litton – III. Allegro vivace (05:51)
13. Katharina Kang Litton – Arirang (Arr. S. Hough for Viola & Piano) (02:33)

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