JAVS Fall 2008

formance is refreshingly restrained, refusing to make too much of a meal of the work’s more emotional moments. NSO’s principal viola, Daniel Foster, is a Primrose Competition first-prize winner and an occa sional JAVS contributor. He garners attention with the first phrases of the Hindemith sonata, played with an exceptionally dark and full tone. This beginning is a harbinger of good things, and indeed this is an unusually compelling reading, with every detail in the score relished and made sense of. The soul of this recording, which was obviously a labor of love for all concerned, is pianist Lambert Orkis. Unfortunately, in Germany (where I am based) he appears almost exclusively as the long-suffering accompanist of violin diva Anne-Sophie Mutter, so it was a pleasure to meet him in more agreeable terms. Orkis is also credited as the CD’s producer, and writes eloquently in the book let on the art and practice of duo playing. He achieves a beautiful fusion of minds with each of his partners, while finding different sound-worlds for the four works on hand. One longs for a last piece of music uniting all participants, but, as Orkis himself puts it in his liner note, with “only two people expressing opinions, progress seems quicker!” Poetic Inspirations. Works for Oboe, Viola, and Piano – Klughardt: Schilflieder , op. 28; Loeffler: Two Rhapsodies; White: The Nymph’s Complaint for the Death of Her Fawn ; Yano: Modinha ; Hindemith: Trio for Viola, Heckelphone, and Piano, op. 47. Alex Klein, oboe; Richard Young, viola; Ricardo Castr, piano. Cedille Records CDR 90000 102. Though the repertoire is perhaps less well-known than the combination with clarinet, the pairing of viola and oboe with piano accompaniment has yielded some attractive compositions. Interestingly, three of the works included here were inspired by poetry, hence the CD’s title. August Klughardt’s Schilflieder (Songs of the Reeds) is based on typically melancholic poems by the German Romantic, Nikolaus Lenau, which are printed in the score as an inspiration to interpreters. They also appear in the booklet, albeit only in an English translation that, while serviceable, is not absolutely accurate. Musically, the five movements remind me of Schumann’s late style, especially of the Märchenerzählungen. Maurice Rollinat’s Symbolistic poetry inspired

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