Search - Bax, Vaughan Williams, Lederer :: English Fantasy for Viola & Harp

Music for Romantics

Brian Forst | Reston, VA United States | 03/31/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Viola and harp duets? Of course, why not? Sir Arnold Bax (1883-1953) had some lush late-romantic ideas for this pairing and gave expression to them with a sublime four movement fantasy sonata. This is nostalgic pastoral music to accompany Andrew Wyeth's haunting, melancholic painting, "Christina's World". Violist Doris Lederer and harpist Jude Mollenhauer bring this beatific music to life exquisitely, with passion and extraordinary technique. They then treat us to their transcriptions of works for viola and piano, and viola and voice, by other English composers: Frank Bridge, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Benjamin Britten, and Percy Grainger. Except for Williams's Fantasia on Greensleeves and Britten's Ash Grove, the melodies are unfamiliar, but they are of a form and intimacy that gives them an instant old-friends quality.Charles Parsons calls this a "musical treat" in his review of this CD in the March/April 2003 American Record Guide; it is precisely that. This is a recording that brings the outdoors into the room, rustles of wind and ripples of water. I put it on frequently as a companion, to work or leisure, stopping now and then to listen intently, enjoying the pieces thoroughly as objects of interest and as background."