Basil Vendryes

Basil Vendryes & William David – A Century of American Viola Sonatas (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:01:32 minutes | 365 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Toccata Next

These five works – four sonatas and a sonatina – chronicle a century of American writing for the viola and are linked by a concern for directness of musical language. But they also reflect diversity in their origins and inspirations, the Ulysses Kay pieces being written by a pioneering African American, Libby Larsen’s by a successful female freelance composer, Eric Ewazen’s animated by a particularly American lyricism and energy, and the sonata by David Tcimpidis commemorating the ‘9/11’ terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, which Tcimpidis heard unfolding.

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Basil Vendryes, William David – Three Centuries of Russian Viola Sonatas (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:09:37 minutes | 684 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Toccata Next

The Russian viola sonata is a rare bird, not least because the instrument itself was frowned upon by the Soviet authorities; as a result Russian music for the viola has a rather patchy history. It begins in earnest in 1931, when the 1825 Sonata by Mikhail Glinka, “the father of Russian music”, was reconstructed from his sketches by Vadim Borisovsky, “the father of the Russian viola”. Thereafter, musicians and composers worked together to expand the repertoire. The relationship between the composer Revol Bunin and the violist Rudolf Barshai resulted in a sonata of 1955 which deserves wider currency. Although half a century apart, the Shebalin and Sokolov sonatas have something unusual in common: both were created as part of a triptych, alongside sonatas for violin and cello. All four composers knew how to make the viola sing – though this lyricism is often animated by moments of drama and excitement.
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