Henri Vieuxtemps - Music for Viola and Piano (Roberto Diaz; Robert Koenig)

Information

Composer: Henri Vieuxtemps

1. Viola Sonata in B flat major, Op. 36: 1. Maestoso - Allegro
2. Viola Sonata in B flat major, Op. 36: 2. Barcalla. Andante con moto
3. Viola Sonata in B flat major, Op. 36: 3. Finale scherzando. Allegretto
4. Elegie, Op. 30
5. Capriccio for viola solo, Op. posth. 9
6. La Nuit ("Night" from Felicien David's "Le désert")
7. Allegro & Scherzo in B flat major (Unfinished Viola Sonata), Op. posth. 14: 1. Allegro con fuoco
8. Allegro & Scherzo in B flat major (Unfinished Viola Sonata), Op. posth. 14: 2. Scherzo. Grazioso - Trio I - Trio II

Roberto Diaz, viola
Robert Koenig, piano

Date: 2002
Label: Naxos
http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.555262

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Review

ARTISTIC QUALITY: 8 / SOUND QUALITY: 9

Impressive playing from the Philadelphia Orchestra’s first chair violist Roberto Diaz marks this generally fine recording of works by Henri Vieuxtemps. In the B-flat major viola sonata, the best-known work here, Diaz and his accompanist Robert Koenig take the reflective Maestoso preface quite sedately. They’re slower than Nobuko Imai and Roger Vignoles on Chandos, for example, but Diaz’s cavernous tone, especially in the lower registers, is denser and weightier, ideally suited to the music’s serious mood. Later, the main sonata allegro brings effective dynamic contrasts, especially in the second theme, and Koenig is careful to match Diaz’s sensitive con melancholia phrasings during the ensuing Barcarolla.

Although the duo could have managed greater dramatic contrast in the brief animato section part way through, Koenig highlights it later in the reprise, where it’s heard as an accompaniment to the main theme. Both players attack the finale with relish, yet the viola’s taxing figurations are never overshadowed, even when the piano writing becomes similarly complex. The Op. 30 Elegie gets an eloquent performance too, and Diaz’s superbly virtuosic reading of the Capriccio for solo viola isn’t bettered on disc. The 24-bit engineering (produced, incidentally, by guitarist Norbert Kraft) is top-drawer, and Diaz is on masterful form throughout.

-- ClassicsToday

More reviews:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2002/Sept02/vieuxtemps.htm
http://www.amazon.com/Vieuxtemps-Music-Viola-Sonata-Unfinished/dp/B000069KG6

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Henri Vieuxtemps (17 February 1820 – 6 June 1881) was a Belgian composer and violinist. He occupies an important place in the history of the violin as a prominent exponent of the Franco-Belgian violin school during the mid-19th century. The bulk of Vieuxtemps's compositions were for his own instrument, including seven concertos and a variety of short salon pieces. He is also known for playing upon what is now known as the Vieuxtemps Guarneri del Gesu, built in 1741, a violin of superior workmanship. The instrument was later played by noted violin masters like Yehudi Menuhin, Itzhak Perlman and Pinchas Zukerman.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Vieuxtemps

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Roberto Díaz (born in Chile, and grew up in Atlanta, Georgia) is a Chilean-American violist. Díaz's primary teachers were his father Manuel Díaz, Burton Fine, Louis Krasner, and Joseph de Pasquale. From 1996 to 2006 he held the position of principal violist of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and has been principal viola of the National Symphony under Mstislav Rostropovich, a member of the Boston Symphony under Seiji Ozawa, and a member of the Minnesota Orchestra under Neville Marriner. He currently plays on a 1600 Antonio & Girolamo Amati viola once owned by William Primrose.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_D%C3%ADaz_(violist)

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