Ásdís Valdimarsdóttir & Marcel Worms - The Voice of the Viola in Times of Oppression, Vol. 2 (2019) [Hi-Res]

If a composer wants to express his feelings with maximum intensity and depth, he chooses the viola remarkably often. The loss of a loved one, a repressive political system, persecution and war were more than once the motivation for composing music with the viola as the most important voice On this CD, compositions for viola and piano in which oppression, both personal and political, has played, directly or indirectly, an unmistakable role.

The Polish-Russian, Jewish composer Mieczyslaw Weinberg fled for the Nazi invasion.

Dick Kattenburg was picked up in 1944 during a razzia and he died, only 24 years old, in Auschwitz.

Max Vredenburg, being a Jewish artist, fled from the Nazis in 1941 to Indonesia but was there interned in a camp.

Shostakovich’s Sonata for viola and piano was his last composition. Notwithstanding that the pressures of the Soviet regime on the composer did not lead to his banishment or even his liquidation, the last stages of Shostakovich’s life were far from uncomplicated.

Ásdís Valdimarsdóttir, viola
Marcel Worms, piano