Although sometimes relegated to second place as a sonic halfway house between violin and cello, the viola has had no shortage of champions, from Bach to present-day composers, drawn by the instrument’s expressive capacity. Among them, Mieczyslaw Weinberg (Warsaw 1919–Moscow 1996), three of whose Sonatas for Viola Solo are recorded for the first time in this double CD, forming part of the Fundación BBVA-NEOS Collection.

Written in the years between 1971 and 1983, the four sonatas testify to the grandeur of a composer censored by Stalinism – and actually imprisoned in 1953 – but today considered the third great name in Soviet music alongside Prokofiev and Shostakovich, his friend and mentor, who would influence all of Weinberg’s compositional output. But in Weinberg we hear many voices. His work also draws on romantic sources, among them Mahler, and on folk music traditions like Bartok before him; in this case the klezmer music of his Jewish origins. This is especially patent in Sonata op. 28 for piano and clarinet, which appears here in its transcription for viola. Forming a bridge between this piece and the second block is the Sonata composed by Moscow violinist Fyodor Druzhinin (1932–2007), a member of the legendary Beethoven Quartet, and dedicatee of a sonata for viola and piano by Shostakovich (his final work) and Weinberg’s no. 1, which closes the first disc.

Performances by:
Julia Rebekka Adler
Jascha Nemtsov

Conductor:
Mieczyslaw Weinberg. Fyodor Druzhinin

Contents:

CD Audio

CD1
Mieczyslaw Weinberg
1-3. Sonata for Clarinet and Piano, op.28. Version for Viola and Piano (18:49)
8-11. Sonata for Viola Solo No.1, op. 107 (25:44)
Fyodor Druzhinin
4-7. Sonata for Viola Solo (16:58) 

Total time: 61:47

CD2
Mieczyslaw Weinberg
1-4. Sonata for Viola Solo No.2, op.123 (15:50)
5-9. Sonata for Viola Solo No.3, op.135 (35:55)
10-12. Sonata for Viola Solo No.4, op 136 (20:17)

Total time: 69:18