JAVS Spring 2022

of the viola raises his gaze to find in the piano the gentle twinkling of the evenstar. In the remaining movements, Sokolov often uses register to create a similar sort of effect which in each case results in an affect that is very different from the one we have just described and purpled. The final two movements of the sonata have a darkness and anger that the prior two did not possess. They are somehow dejected and angry, and resigned. The Shebalin sonata, given last on the album, returns the listener to the broad lyricism of the Glinka albeit in a different musical language. The lines are almost Brahmsian in length but cleverer; there is perhaps something of Borodin or Rimsky-Korsakov in them, a sort of fairy-tale lilt which was a surprise to me considering that Shebalin was a Soviet era composer. Thus far on the album, Vendryes has shown us the beauty of his tone, a wonderfully rich vibrato and an emotional sophistication well-controlled. All of which is matched by his partner, William David. In the Shebalin sonata, Vendryes has the opportunity to show off his accomplished technique in long double-stop passages which do not seem to be all that idiomatic or conventional, and in the closing movement, the third, marked Allegro Assai , his left-hand facility in several passages of quick and spirited triplets. The sonata ends with a dramatic power and emotional strength on par with those by other Russian composers of Shebalin’s era, one that brings this entirely successful album to a satisfying close.

With his fourth full length album titled Remembering Russia , violist Jesus Rodolfo and pianist Min Young Kang offer works in arrangement by prominent Russian composers Prokofiev, Rachmaninov, and Stravinsky. On his prior albums, Rodolfo recorded the complete sonatas for viola of Hindemith (those for solo viola and those with piano, collaborating with pianist Mariko Furukawa), and wonderful renditions of the difficult sonata for solo violin in C major of J.S. Bach in arrangement, and the even more difficult Sonata for Solo Viola of György Ligeti. He has also produced a single titled Moonlight , in collaboration with Min Young Kang, which features a beautiful arrangement of the first movement of Beethoven’s Moonlight sonata. It is worth surveying the repertoire of Rodolfo’s prior albums to, if we may use a cliché, get a sense of where he is coming from with his latest one, which is to say that he mixes canonical works with emerging standards, contemporary pieces, and newer arrangements (new for the viola at least). His recital repertoire seems to do the same and we might mention also that he on occasion collaborates, if we can use that word here, with electronics. Clearly then, Rodolfo is an artist who is conscious of tradition and mindful of a certain future for himself and his instrument. Why else would he perform such repertoire, and offer arrangements by prior champions of the viola and himself? All violists will know that so far as repertoire is concerned, part of our “tradition” is that we play arrangements. At times this has been used as some sort of slander or shameful something our other on our instrument and its players; but such criticism, self-abasement, or whatever it is was never really valid and should be dispelled from the vocabulary and, more importantly, psychology of all violists and those who dare present themselves to us. The tradition of creating arrangements for concert and private enjoyment is long and fruitful for many instruments and therefore no disgrace to the viola. Now, it is popular to think that many arrangements were made for the viola because of a lack of repertoire. Perhaps that is true. But most of the time, and especially in the last one hundred years or so, arrangements enrich the concert repertoire. This is most definitely proved on the present album by Rodolfo and his collaborator Kang, who together offer three: Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet , Rachmaninov’s cello sonata, and Stravinsky’s Suite Italienne .

Remembering Russia Jesus Rodolfo, viola Min Young Kang, piano

Romeo and Juliet, op. 64, Sergei Prokofiev (arr. V. Borisovsky for viola and piano) Cello Sonata in G minor, op. 19, Sergei Rachmaninov, (arr. V. Borisovsky for viola and piano) Suite italienne, Stravinsky (arr. Jesus Rodolfo for viola and piano)

We will look at the Prokofiev and Stravinsky arrangements first. The Prokofiev was arranged by the eminent Russian

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Journal of the American Viola Society / Vol. 38, No. 1, Spring 2022