Rysanov Chang

Maxim Rysanov completes his survey of all Brahms s chamber works to feature the viola. On this second volume, he is joined by Alice Coote and Ashley Wass in the Two Songs op.91, and takes the solo viola part the clarinet role in the Op.115 Quintet. Richard Mühlfeld, the clarinetist for whom Brahms wrote his two sonatas and the quintet, managed to coax Brahms out of self-imposed retirement, and the result is the wonderful Indian summer of late chamber works. Joseph Joachim remarked that the clarinet parts would work well transcribed for viola. Brahms lavished much care on these arrangements, and they are valuable additions to the repertoire of the viola.

Originally a double bass player, Pēteris Vasks has a special fondness for the string family, and has composed numerous works for string ensembles of various sizes. Some of his most widely performed works are for string orchestra, among them Musica dolorosa and the violin concertos Distant Light and Lonely Angel. Another one is his Symphony for Strings ‘Voices’, composed in 1991, as his native Latvia, along with Estonia and Lithuania, was breaking free from the crumbling Soviet Union. In a note on the work, Vasks has written: ‘… the new beginning was difficult. The symphony speaks of my essential, most meaningful themes. About life. About eternity. About conscience.’

This album marks the culmination of two special Hallé collaborations and includes four major pieces from one of the most distinctive of current British compositional voices.