JAVS Spring 2024

Recording Reviews

Celebrating the Contemporary Composer by Lanson Wells In this volume of JAVS , we highlight three truly fantastic recent recording projects by three of today’s most exciting violists: Works for Viola by American Women Composers by violist Kevin Nordstrom, Sonata Forum No. 3: A Century of American Viola Sonatas by violist Basil Vendryes, and the work for viola and orchestra: Shubho Lhaw Qolo by Sami Seif, as played by Cleveland Orchestra violist Stanley Konopka. * * *

Works for Viola by American Women Composers 2023 Oclassica OÜ Kevin Nordstrom, viola https://oclassica.com/releases/works-for-viola-by-american-women-composers/

On Works for Viola by American Women Composers, violist Kevin Nordstrom delivers a gorgeously colorful performance of Joan Tower’s Simply Purple for Solo Viola and shows an impressive display of technical skill in Lillian Fuchs’s Sonata Pastorale for Unaccompanied Viola . This recording ends with Alyssa Morris’s Puccini Fantasy for Viola and Piano , which eloquently weaves together arias from Gianni Schicchi, Turandot, and La Boheme . Morris’s work was commissioned for Nordstrom by pianist Glenn Harman, who provides the expert and expressive collaboration on the work’s debut recording. Throughout this recording Nordstrom demonstrates great technical control, showcasing wonderful sound production and an amazingly expressive and varied vibrato. To me, the premise of this recording is just as important as the beautiful performances, highlighting that these wonderful compositions by Tower, Fuchs, and Morris show how a recital of masterful compositions by American female composers can be truly captivating.

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Journal of the American Viola Society / Vol. 40, No. 1, Spring 2024