Friends and colleagues working side by side in the musical melting pot of fin-de-siecle Paris form the connective tissue in this attractive and smartly curated programme by violist Timothy Ridout and pianist Jonathan Ware. The album, titled Alto Appassionato, showcases a glowing tone and rhythmic acuity that brings a bristling imagination and rich emotional layers to music by Franck, Fauré, and more.
Opening with Honnoré and Büsser
The album opens with Léon Honnoré’s engaging Morceau de concert, premiered in 1904 by viola pupils at the Paris Conservatoire. Remarkably, the viola had only been admitted to the curriculum 10 years earlier. Criticised at the time for requiring the violist to play harmonics – supposedly the exclusive purview of the violin – it emerges here as a zesty showpiece with a melodic heart and more than a hint of Beethoven. It pairs nicely with Henri Büsser’s moody C-sharp minor Appassionato, dispatched with a stormy flourish by Ridout whose playing throughout bristles with imagination.
Franck's Violin Sonata in Viola Arrangement
The red meat of the album is César Franck’s Violin Sonata of 1886, performed in Paul-Louis Neuberth’s 1919 arrangement for viola. Ware is an accomplished and rhythmically acute musician, vital in a work where the piano is often first among equals. Ridout’s glowing tone and consummate technique bring this richly layered music to life, from the wistful passions of the opening Allegretto ben moderato to the lyrical felicities of the finale.
Fauré Transcriptions
Weightier than the violin yet airier than the cello, the viola proves well suited to Ridout’s skilful transcriptions of Fauré songs that fill out the selection. While Mai and Le Papillon et la Fleur here resemble newly minted salon pieces, reflective works such as Les Berceaux and Après un rêve plumb more considerable emotional depths.
Listen on Apple Music or Spotify to experience this engaging and smartly curated programme.
