This Oehms Classics disc by violist Ashan Pillai, who is British by way of Sri Lanka, might seem to some as an example of left-field programming at its most extreme -- Schubert's beloved Arpeggione Sonata and five viola transcriptions of his familiar Schwanengesang combined with Six Nocturnes by totally unfamiliar Bohemian Johann Wenzel Kalliwoda. In reality, the combination of the two into the same program is not that far off the mark; Kalliwoda was one of the most distinguished of Schubert's contemporaries and far better ...
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This Oehms Classics disc by violist Ashan Pillai, who is British by way of Sri Lanka, might seem to some as an example of left-field programming at its most extreme -- Schubert's beloved Arpeggione Sonata and five viola transcriptions of his familiar Schwanengesang combined with Six Nocturnes by totally unfamiliar Bohemian Johann Wenzel Kalliwoda. In reality, the combination of the two into the same program is not that far off the mark; Kalliwoda was one of the most distinguished of Schubert's contemporaries and far better known during his lifetime than Schubert in his. Whereas Kalliwoda's numerous symphonies and overtures are among the most criminally overlooked major works of the early nineteenth centuries, these Six Nocturnes Op. 186 do not show them at his best. Not very nocturnal in mood, they aren't very serious as compositions and betray more than just a whiff of the salon with their bathetic longuers and pretensions toward silent movie-style drama.Of the pieces here, the best are Pillai's own...
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