Give Naxos credit for its ongoing ability to resurrect worthwhile music from forgotten places and times. The title Soviet Russian Viola Music is unlikely to stir the heart of any except specialists, and the music is apparently obscure even in the Russian-speaking sphere; three of the five pieces heard here have never been recorded before. But none of it is less than attractive, and any work on the disc could serve violists, whose chamber repertoire is notoriously sparse. The music ranges chronologically from the 1920s to ...
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Give Naxos credit for its ongoing ability to resurrect worthwhile music from forgotten places and times. The title Soviet Russian Viola Music is unlikely to stir the heart of any except specialists, and the music is apparently obscure even in the Russian-speaking sphere; three of the five pieces heard here have never been recorded before. But none of it is less than attractive, and any work on the disc could serve violists, whose chamber repertoire is notoriously sparse. The music ranges chronologically from the 1920s to the 1970s, and, like other music of the Soviet era, it gets more conservative the later you get; Vladimir Kryukov's Sonata for viola and piano, Op. 15, which had its beginnings in 1920, is close to Scriabin, but the later works are in a more straightforwardly tonal and melodic idiom. Perhaps the most pleasing is Grigory Frid's Sonata for viola, Op. 62/1, with its pair of beautifully sustained slow outer movements. The other work from the 1920s, the multi-section Sonata for viola and...
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