Robert Levin

The first two works are for viola and a battery of percussion instruments. Pourtinade, in nine sections with highly descriptive titles whose order is decided by the performers, elicits every possible sound and color effect from the viola, and an extraordinary range of blending and contrasting textural timbres from the instrumental combinations. "Redwood," inspired by Japanese woodcuts, uses the percussion as melody instruments; often it seems incredible that a single player can produce such a wealth of sounds. Opening softly and mysteriously, it becomes quite active, and then a beautiful viola solo fades away. The Shostakovich Sonata, written in the shadow of death, is heartbreakingly moving in its lamentatious mournfulness and turbulently desperate outbursts. The piano texture is pared down to skeletal spareness; the viola mourns in the dark low register and soars radiantly up high. The Scherzo is defiantly sardonic; the Finale, full of quotes from Beethoven, ends in resignation. The playing is beautiful and projects the changing moods with a riveting, inwardly experienced expressiveness.

These soulful Spanish and Argentinean songs arranged by violist Kim Kashkashian and pianist Robert Levin are well suited to their expressive and expansive playing. Most of the songs, ranging from works by Granados, de Falla, and Montsalvatge to early Ginastera, are written in a late romantic to early modern idiom, and many incorporate a strong folk element. The selections include rowdy, rhythmically charged dance-like songs, tender lullabies, and many flavors of love songs, from the exultant to the despairing. In addition to the better-known composers, Argentineans Carlos Guastavino and Carlos López-Buchardo make extraordinarily fine contributions. The choices of repertoire are excellent; each one of these songs is a jewel, and the ordering of the selections artful, including the surprisingly effective repetition of two songs at different points in the program. The transcriptions are inventive and imaginative, with the vocal lines idiomatically adapted for the viola's expressive capabilities.

The first complete recording of W.A. Mozart’s piano sonatas on the composer’s own fortepiano (Anton Walter, 1782). This comprehensive, 7-CD boxed set also comprises unfinished fragments by the Austrian composer, here completed by American pianist and Mozart-scholar Robert Levin in consideration of Mozart’s idioms and the compositional mannerisms of his era. Robert Levin’s interpretations of the piano sonatas, too, are informed by the performance practice customs of the First Viennese School, including improvised elements and decorations in the repeats.

These two sonatas, originally written for clarinet, marked the end of an intense period of depression for Brahms, during which his creative energies had all but faded. Kim Kashkashian, whose command of the viola unearths an even deeper realm of possibility in this already engaging diptych, faithfully captures the somber circumstances of its creation. In doing so, she shows that the viola is no less an instrument of breath, drawing from deep within her lungs the sheer vocal power required to carry across such arresting music.

These bracing, unorthodox fortepiano readings of Mozart's first three keyboard sonatas are the first in a series by Robert Levin, a professor at Harvard University. Levin is among the first players to use the fortepiano's agility in the service of speed and flash. His Mozart is quick, jumpy, technically impressive, and distinctly unlyrical – "un-Mozartian" will be the first reaction for many listeners. Sample the Presto finale of the Piano Sonata in F major, K. 280, for an example of what you're getting into here.

AAM releases the final volume of an acclaimed project to record Mozart’s complete works for keyboard and orchestra. Fittingly, this final instalment includes three works that in various ways are valedictory: K595 is Mozart’s last completed keyboard concert, while K503 is the last concerto of his Viennese years. Louise Alder joins AAM and Robert Levin in an aria for solo soprano, solo keyboard and orchestra; Ch’io mi scordi di te? is a farewell to one of Mozart’s favourite singers, Nancy Storace.

The viola was Hindemith's instrument (though he could play almost any), and he wrote some of his most expressive chamber music for it. This two-disc set includes all four of Hindemith's sonatas for solo violin and the three for viola and piano. I prefer the wildness of Hindemith's earlier music to the sometimes arid calm of his later music, so listeners like myself who like Hindemith can have a feast here as most of these are early works. They are played with energy and passion by an outstanding violist and a fine pianist.

What could more enticing than two masterpieces written by composers still in their twenties? In a letter to his exacting father, Leopold, Mozart said he thought his recently completed quintet, K452, was his best work yet. And this in the midst of an extraordinarily purple patch, even by his standards. Beethoven's quintet (for the same instruments and in the same key) was written in deliberate imitation of Mozart's, perhaps in as much a spirit of friendly competition as homage.