James Ehnes - Brahms:Viola Sonata / Schumann:Marchenbilder - Import CD

Credits:

James Ehnes

Description:

James Ehnes' Japan Commemorative Disc! Brahms' Viola Sonatas! World-renowned for his astonishing virtuosity and crystal-clear lyricism, he was awarded the 61st Grammy Award for "Best Instrumental Music" in 2019 for his Violin Concerto (PONYX4189/ONYX4189) by Aaron Jay Kernis, and in 2021 he was named the Gramophone Award's Canadian virtuoso violinist James Ehnes was named "Artist of the Year" at the Gramophone Awards in 2021. He and his friend Andrew Armstrong, with whom he has collaborated on many albums including Beethoven's Violin Sonatas, which was nominated for the Gramophone Award in the UK and the Juno Award, "Canada's Grammy Award", have recorded a new recording of Brahms and Schumann. On this album, Ehnes takes up the viola to record the sonatas composed by Brahms in 1894 and arranged for viola and piano.Originally written for Richard Muehlfeldt, one of the most famous German clarinetists of the time, Brahms made subtle changes for the viola version, and these two late masterpieces greatly enriched the small repertoire of viola sonatas. The two late masterpieces greatly enriched the repertoire of the viola sonatas, which were few and far between. The coupling combines "The Fairy Tale Book," a work composed by Schumann in a few days in March 1851 and dedicated to the German violinist and conductor Wilhelm Joseph von Wasilewski, which evokes a variety of scenes ranging from the melancholy to the dramatic. For this recording, Ehnes plays on a 1696 Stradivarius "Alcinto" viola, kindly loaned to him by the Royal Academy of Music. Tokyo M-Plus