# Violas - seriously, now!



## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

We all know a range of viola jokes, but the viola is a beautiful instrument with a lovely mellow tone. Can you suggest beautiful pieces by major composers featuring the viola or alternately suggest viola virtuosi?

I'll start off with Teleman:






and Bach:


----------



## dgee (Sep 26, 2013)

There's heaps of people to wax lyrical about the concertos and Harold and Don Quixote, but I'd like to raise the monster section solo in the 2nd movement of Bruckner 4. Pretty awesome


----------



## quack (Oct 13, 2011)

Violas are the best, seriously. I've always preferred them to violins and cellos, it's just a shame the repertoire is limited. Less of the squeaky hysterics of the violin, little of the ponderous grumpiness of the cello. Just right spake Goldilocks.

Apparently Beethoven was a violist at first and this is his viola. But he had to go and be hip and play those newfangled piano things. The only significant viola work I think is his Notturno which was an arrangement done by someone else of one of his string trios














Here's a viola work Hindemith wrote in one day in response to the death of king George V.






And here's some film music which uses the viola hauntingly


----------



## dgee (Sep 26, 2013)

Yes - Hindemith was a violist of some ability!


----------



## Andrei (Sep 11, 2013)

I really don't get the viola bashing. I regard Walton's Viola Concerto (and maybe a couple of equals) as the greatest musical achievement to come out of England. It is funny but I never seem to tire of it. Kurtág's Movement for Viola and Orchestra is a powerful piece as well. Bruch's Romance for Viola and Orchestra has all the lyrical charm of his more popular pieces such as Scottish Fantasia. I'm listening to it as I type - just gorgeous.

Quack: That _Ulysses' Gaze_ is quite something!


----------



## Vesteralen (Jul 14, 2011)

http://www.viola.com/famousnames.html

Mozart, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Dvorak, Vaughan Williams, Hindemith, Harbison among the composers listed in the above link who played the viola.

Some of them, of course, played multiple instruments, but a number of them apparently preferred it to most of the others they played.


----------



## GGluek (Dec 11, 2011)

When we were growing up, the viola virtuoso with the biggest name was Walter Trampler.


----------



## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Amazing viola concertos by Schnittke and Bretg Dean. Also, Brett Dean has composed an incredible solo virtuoso work called "Intimate Decisions."

Schumann has written a great work called "Märchenbilder."


----------



## Celloman (Sep 30, 2006)

_Flos Campi_ by Vaughan Williams is perhaps my favorite piece for viola and orchestra. While it isn't exactly a concerto, it highlights the dark lyricism of the viola in characteristic VW fashion.


----------



## Klavierspieler (Jul 16, 2011)

Here is the aforementioned "Märchenbilder:"






And of course the famous Rebecca Clarke sonata:






And also a piece Britten wrote for viola and piano, though it's better known now in its form for viola and string orchestra, "Lachrymae:"


----------



## Ondine (Aug 24, 2012)

This is one of my favourites Keith's albums.









Superb performance by Kim! A must have for Viola lovers.


----------



## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

I'd strongly recommend this album to those interested in 20th-century music with the viola: http://www.amazon.com/Music-for-Vio...&qid=1380897627&sr=8-11&keywords=yuri+bashmet

Yuri Bashmet & Sviatoslav Richter in Britten, Shostakovich, and Hindemith. Shosty's moving Viola Sonata is appropriately at the center of things, but I've enjoyed getting to know the others through this album.

Thanks for all the recommendations on this thread.


----------



## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

Ligeti wrote a solo viola sonata:





, 




The only bowed instrument in Boulez's Le marteau sans maître is a viola: 




Takemitsu's "A Bird came down the Walk" for viola and piano:


----------



## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

I can recommend two outstanding viola works that haven't been mentioned here yet.

One for romantic geezers:






Another one for romantic geezers:






And one for XXth century geezers IT'S THREE, three outstanding viola works that haven't been mentioned here yet. So, among outstanding viola works that haven't been mentioned here yet... I'm coming again

I can recommend THREE outstanding viola works that haven't been mentioned here yet.

One for romantic geezers:






Another one for romantic geezers:






And one for XXth century geezers:


----------



## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

Andrei said:


> Bruch's Romance for Viola and Orchestra has all the lyrical charm of his more popular pieces such as Scottish Fantasia.  I'm listening to it as I type - just gorgeous.


And one can add his double concerto for viola and clarinet - so mellow and autumnal one might almost think it was ghost written by Brahms.


----------



## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Mahler's 10th begins with the dark sound of the violas alone.






Takemitsu also wrote a piece for viola and orchestra, "A String Around Autumn". Here it is played by Nobuko Imai with the Saito Kinen Orchestra under Seiji Ozawa.


----------



## hreichgott (Dec 31, 2012)

Couldn't let a viola thread go by without mentioning Scott Slapin and Tanya Solomon, who after playing for several major orchestras are now teaching and performing as a duo full time.
violaduo.com

Here they are in the premiere of Patrick Neher's "Games," sonata for 2 violas





And Scott's jokey composition The Hasid and the Hayseed


----------



## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

A few more:

The *Gubajulina* viola concerto played by Bashmet: 




and of course the dark *Shostakovich* sonata, one of his last works: 




EDIT: *Berio*´s "Voci" was a tougher nut to crack that I remembered it to be ;-).


----------



## Cheyenne (Aug 6, 2012)

COAG is right, Schnittke's Viola Concerto is amazing.


----------



## spradlig (Jul 25, 2012)

I can pretty confidently assert that the viola is simply underpowered compared to the violin or cello. Its body is not big enough to project enough sound as one would like. The double bass is even more underpowered. I think that's why it's hard to find music written for viola and even hardly to find music for double bass.

I don't think anyone has mentioned Mozart's "Sinfinonia Concertante" for violin, viola and orchestra yet (can anyone tell me why he didn't just call it a double concerto)? Mozart directed that the viola be tuned a semitone higher than normal, as if he were trying to compensate for the viola's weaknesses. According to Wikipedia at least, when people perform it using modern instruments, the viola is tuned as usual.

Schubert's Arpeggione Sonata can be performed on cello or viola. I've only heard a viola performance once and cello performances many times, in years of classical radio listening.

Bartok wrote a viola concerto which he didn't quite finish, but someone completed it after his death. It has a good reputation. I didn't "get" it when I heard it.

Someone mentioned Vaughn Williams's _Flos Campi_ and it is indeed an excellent piece.

Debussy's sonata for flute, viola, and harp is nice.

I'm pretty sure Hindemith wrote a lot of viola music, but I don't know specifics.


----------



## Tristan (Jan 5, 2013)

Love this thread. The viola is such an underrated instrument. 

My personal favorite piece that features the viola:


----------



## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

In the thread on Vagn Holmboe, it transpired that he wrote a viola concerto as well. There's a movement on YouTube but I haven't listened to it yet so I can't comment.


----------



## Musician (Jul 25, 2013)

The Teleman is beautiful.


----------



## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Gadzooks and great Apollo! What is with all the videos instead of links? I thought it was a TC request / policy to favor links, since videos create a byte traffic jam and make the pages come up so sluggishly.

Mozart: 
Sinfonia Concertante K. 364
The "Viola" Quintets (One fiddle, Two Violas, Two 'Celli)
K.174 in Bb / K.593 in D / K.515 in C / K.516 in Gm / K.406 in Cm / K.614 in Eb

Stravinsky:
That tremendous passage for six solo violas in Le Sacre du Printemps
Elegy for Viola Solo





Darius Milhaud ~ Concerto for viola (commissioned by Hindemith, the first movement a direct hommage "à la manière de" Hindemith's early Kammermusik)





Benjamin Britten ~ Lachrymae op. 43, for Viola and String orchestra





Berio ~ Sequenza VI





Here is Hindemith, playing his Trauermusik. The guy was a great violist.


----------



## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

spradlig said:


> I can pretty confidently assert that the viola is simply underpowered compared to the violin or cello. Its body is not big enough to project enough sound as one would like. The double bass is even more underpowered.


You're right about the sound, but the bodies are not the issue -- since each of the lower instruments has a larger resonating body  The phenomenon is readily understood if you think of a how a high clear child's voice speaking at _mf_ is nearly piercing and how much more that carries over _(cuts right through, actually)_ lower adult voices. The lower sound waves are wider, simply more literally disperse, and have to move more air than higher pitched sounds.



spradlig said:


> I don't think anyone has mentioned Mozart's "Sinfinonia Concertante" for violin, viola and orchestra yet (can anyone tell me why he didn't just call it a double concerto)? Mozart directed that the viola be tuned a semitone higher than normal, as if he were trying to compensate for the viola's weaknesses. According to Wikipedia at least, when people perform it using modern instruments, the viola is tuned as usual.


LOL, I was typing as you entered. Great piece. It is a "concertante" because both parts are truly more obbligato than solo roles. Generally, all solo concerti are concertante works, but specifically, the concertante role is more embedded with the musical fabric vs. heroic solo prominence.

The no longer needed scordatura is probably due to steel strings, and their far greater carrying power, on the instruments vs. the gut strings of Mozart's time.


----------



## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

dgee said:


> Yes - Hindemith was a violist of some ability!


Hindemith was quite an accomplished violist. Viola being his first instrument. 
He had "some ability" on many other instruments.


----------



## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

PetrB said:


> Gadzooks and great Apollo! What is with all the videos instead of links? I thought it was a TC request / policy to favor links, since videos create a byte traffic jam and make the pages come up so sluggishly.


Good question I don't know so raised it separately http://www.talkclassical.com/28413-policy-number-youtube-videos.html Let's see what they say.


----------



## spradlig (Jul 25, 2012)

@PetrB : Thank you for you informative post. How can you explain the fact that the viola is a less loud + less popular instrument than the cello, without blaming it on the size of the body? The cello plays mostly lower pitched notes than the viola, but it carries better. Yo-Yo Ma recorded Bartok's viola concerto on a "vertical viola". I'm sure you know what that is, but for other folks, it is an instrument with the same range as a regular viola but a bigger body (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertical_viola). For some reason, the vertical viola seems never to have really caught on.

I did not know that Mozart wrote 6 quintets for a combination featuring 2 violas, nor did I know about the passage from the Rite of Spring. I will check it out.



PetrB said:


> You're right about the sound, but the bodies are not the issue -- since each of the lower instruments has a larger resonating body  The phenomenon is readily understood if you think of a how a high clear child's voice speaking at _mf_ is nearly piercing and how much more that carries over _(cuts right through, actually)_ lower adult voices. The lower sound waves are wider, simply more literally disperse, and have to move more air than higher pitched sounds.
> 
> LOL, I was typing as you entered. Great piece. It is a "concertante" because both parts are truly more obbligato than solo roles. Generally, all solo concerti are concertante works, but specifically, the concertante role is more embedded with the musical fabric vs. heroic solo prominence.
> 
> The no longer needed scordatura is probably due to steel strings, and their far greater carrying power, on the instruments vs. the gut strings of Mozart's time.


----------



## spradlig (Jul 25, 2012)

PetrB : Thanks also for explaining about Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante. I Googled the term "sinfonia concertante" to try to figure out why Mozart entitled his piece that way and it was not much help. The soloists in the Mozart work are extremely prominent throughout the piece (unlike the solo viola in Berlioz's _Harold in Italy_, which Wikipedia cited as a work that one might consider a "sinfonia concertante"). I guess the issue is that there is not a lot of dramatic contrast/conflict between the soloists and the orchestra, and the solo parts don't have a "heroic" character (?)

By the way, Prokofiev wrote a piece for solo cello and orchestra that is almost always called a "Symphony-Concerto". I have read that its title is often "mistranslated" from Russian as "sinfonia concertante", and I have read where people call it that. Do you know what the correct title is? Maybe it doesn't matter much. It just sounds like a cello concerto to much. I like it very much.



PetrB said:


> You're right about the sound, but the bodies are not the issue -- since each of the lower instruments has a larger resonating body  The phenomenon is readily understood if you think of a how a high clear child's voice speaking at _mf_ is nearly piercing and how much more that carries over _(cuts right through, actually)_ lower adult voices. The lower sound waves are wider, simply more literally disperse, and have to move more air than higher pitched sounds.
> 
> LOL, I was typing as you entered. Great piece. It is a "concertante" because both parts are truly more obbligato than solo roles. Generally, all solo concerti are concertante works, but specifically, the concertante role is more embedded with the musical fabric vs. heroic solo prominence.
> 
> The no longer needed scordatura is probably due to steel strings, and their far greater carrying power, on the instruments vs. the gut strings of Mozart's time.


----------



## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

spradlig said:


> PetrB : Thanks also for explaining about Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante. I Googled the term "sinfonia concertante" to try to figure out why Mozart entitled his piece that way and it was not much help. The soloists in the Mozart work are extremely prominent throughout the piece (unlike the solo viola in Berlioz's _Harold in Italy_, which Wikipedia cited as a work that one might consider a "sinfonia concertante"). I guess the issue is that there is not a lot of dramatic contrast/conflict between the soloists and the orchestra, and the solo parts don't have a "heroic" character (?)
> 
> Prokofiev wrote a piece "Symphony-Concerto" for solo cello and orchestra. I have read that its title is often "mistranslated" from Russian as "sinfonia concertante", and I have read where people call it that. Do you know what the correct title is? Maybe it doesn't matter much. It just sounds too much like a cello concerto.


A quick check to remind myself of the Prokofiev has me giving this educated guess... There is the briefest of introductions, and the 'Cello enters immediately. Traditional concerti form has a much longer double exposition, a variant of the sonata Allegro of a Symphony's first movement. This has none. Literate composers rarely mis-title their music when it comes to forms, and I think Symphony Concerto is apposite here, i.e. without a full listen or analyzing it, it is probably more in symphonic format. The 'Cello has a highly prominent role, carrying much material, in solo, solo with a much reduced accompaniment, and full accompaniment, very much qualifying it as "concerto."

About "obligato" (also spelled obbligato)	
(Italian) or obligato, Obligat (German), obligé (French), literally 'necessary', 'indispensible', 'bound' or 'obligated', [[_although sometimes used to mean the reverse -- which should (instead) be marked ad libitum, i.e. 'may be omitted' or 'optional'_]]
This above on Obligato is entire and direct from the Dolmetsch Online Music Dictionary -- a terrific source which I think you might want to bookmark.
http://www.dolmetsch.com/musictheorydefs.htm

Not to confuse, but in the general usage, Concertante would include works with an obligato instrument role.

A clear example of obligato piano in a work is Ernst Bloch's Concerto Grosso No. 1





Manuel de Falla's _Noches en los Jardines de España_ Is a concertante work for piano and orchestra, the piano running almost throughout, while still very much "embedded" in the overall musical fabric, often then also qualifying as obbligato. 













P.s. If you like the Prokofiev Symphony Concerto, you might enjoy the Shostakovitch 'Cello Concerto No. 1. Further afield, Samuel Barber wrote a wonderful 'Cello Concerto as well.


----------



## spradlig (Jul 25, 2012)

@PetrB: Wow! Thanks again for a very informative and almost immediate response. I do like both of Shostakovich's cello concertos. The second seems to be neglected. I guess only someone who knows both Russian and music can tell us for sure the correct translation of the title of Prokofiev's Symphony-Concerto. Britten also wrote a "cello symphony", if I'm not mistaken.

I have heard Barber's cello concerto once or twice but didn't "get" it. I'll try again some time. I also did not appreciate his piano concerto. I like his violin concerto, which of course is very popular.

There seem to be a lot of popular concertos that break the rule of having a long introduction before the entrance of the soloists. Here are a couple: Grieg's piano concerto, Brahms's second piano concerto, Brahms's Double Concerto (cello enters very early and before violin), Ravel' Concerto in G, Beethoven's 4th piano concerto, Rachmaninoff's 2d and 3d piano concertos, Mendelssohn's violin concerto, Richard Strauss's oboe concerto, Tchaikovsky's 1st piano concerto. I'm pretty sure about all these. In fact, I am finding it about as easy to think of "exceptions" such as these as it is to think of concertos that do follow that rule.


PetrB said:


> A quick check to remind myself of the Prokofiev has me giving this educated guess... There is the briefest of introductions, and the 'Cello enters immediately. Traditional concerti form has a much longer double exposition, a variant of the sonata Allegro of a Symphony's first movement. This has none. Literate composers rarely mis-title their music when it comes to forms, and I think Symphony Concerto is apposite here, i.e. without a full listen or analyzing it, it is probably more in symphonic format. The 'Cello has a highly prominent role, carrying much material, in solo, solo with a much reduced accompaniment, and full accompaniment, very much qualifying it as "concerto."
> 
> About "obligato" (also spelled obbligato)
> (Italian) or obligato, Obligat (German), obligé (French), literally 'necessary', 'indispensible', 'bound' or 'obligated', [[_although sometimes used to mean the reverse -- which should (instead) be marked ad libitum, i.e. 'may be omitted' or 'optional'_]]
> ...


----------



## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

spradlig said:


> @PetrB: Wow! Thanks again for a very informative and almost immediate response. I do like both of Shostakovich's cello concertos. The second seems to be neglected. I guess only someone who knows both Russian and music can tell us for sure the correct translation of the title of Prokofiev's Symphony-Concerto. Britten also wrote a "cello symphony", if I'm not mistaken.
> 
> I have heard Barber's cello concerto once or twice but didn't "get" it. I'll try again some time. I also did not appreciate his piano concerto. I like his violin concerto, which of course is very popular.
> 
> There seem to be a lot of popular concertos that break the rule of having a long introduction before the entrance of the soloists. Here are a couple: Grieg's piano concerto, Brahms's second piano concerto, Brahms's Double Concerto (cello enters very early and before violin), Ravel' Concerto in G, Beethoven's 4th piano concerto, Rachmaninoff's 2d and 3d piano concertos, Mendelssohn's violin concerto, Richard Strauss's oboe concerto, Tchaikovsky's 1st piano concerto. I'm pretty sure about all these. In fact, I am finding it about as easy to think of "exceptions" such as these as it is to think of concertos that do follow that rule.


You're more than welcome. It is a pleause for any who can provide when any member here truly wants to know more.

FORM: Apart from variants of the interior decoration and exterior paint job, if every house had exactly the same size shape and floor plan they would all become pretty boring pretty fast.

My undergrad theory textbook had on the frontispiece page, "All things are in flux" ~ Herodotus. 
Every new harmonic procedure ("rule") had a score illustration, each that followed the rule had another example by the same composer where the composer "broke the rule."

At the most basic, making it work and playing with and against the listener's expectations is what it is literally "all about"


----------



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

spradlig said:


> I guess only someone who knows both Russian and music can tell us for sure the correct translation of the title of Prokofiev's Symphony-Concerto. Britten also wrote a "cello symphony", if I'm not mistaken.


Prokofiev's Symphony-Concerto for cello & orchestra used to be called the "Sinfonia Concertante" many moons ago -- I had an LP with that title on the cover. I *think* that the name was changed because "sinfornia concertante" now generally means a concerto-like piece with two or more solo instruments, like Mozart's examples or Beethoven's Triple. Maybe somebody can speak with more certainty!

Re the Britten piece, he did indeed write a Cello Symphony and it's a very striking work. Don't be put off by the gnarly beginning...but it's by no means a "popular" work, as they used to say.


----------



## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

KenOC said:


> Prokofiev's Symphony-Concerto for cello & orchestra used to be called the "Sinfonia Concertante" many moons ago -- I had an LP with that title on the cover. I *think* that the name was changed because "sinfornia concertante" now generally means a concerto-like piece with two or more solo instruments, like Mozart's examples or Beethoven's Triple. Maybe somebody can speak with more certainty!
> 
> Re the Britten piece, he did indeed write a Cello Symphony and it's a very striking work. Don't be put off by the gnarly beginning...but it's by no means a "popular" work, as they used to say.


Again generally, and there is no real tight pigeon-holing any form, with one -- or more soloists -- concertante also implies more chamber-like interplay of parts throughout the ensemble as part of the nature of the piece than is (again generally) found in the more overt soloist / protagonist concerto format.

ADD - from Dolmetsch online dictionary, again - hint hint.

Concertante	(Spanish, Italian, from concertare, literally 'to act together')

in the form of a concerto, where in an instrumental group, there is interplay between the performers, each allowed to display his or her virtuosity, either as an individual or as the member of a section

a concerto with two or more soloists


----------



## spradlig (Jul 25, 2012)

I just heard Bruch's Romance for Viola and Orchestra for the first time today on Pandora on my IPhone and it is beautiful. According to Wikipedia, he composed 20 or so concertante works. Only a couple of them are well known. I plan to explore the others.



brianvds said:


> And one can add his double concerto for viola and clarinet - so mellow and autumnal one might almost think it was ghost written by Brahms.


----------



## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

Mozart wrote some duets for violin and viola. Beautiful lines singing together and to each other.


----------



## musicrom (Dec 29, 2013)

I'm surprised I haven't seen this posted yet in this thread, but Vieuxtemps' Capriccio for viola is pretty awesome:


----------



## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Freshman year in Music Theory class, I sat next to a violist who had this on her desk. I had to catch the chance:


----------



## Blake (Nov 6, 2013)

The viola is amazing with subtle accents. Very well shown in the Takemitsu piece posted earlier.


----------



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Vesuvius said:


> The viola is amazing with subtle accents. Very well shown in the Takemitsu piece posted earlier.


I believe both Mozart and Beethoven played the viola. Is there significance in this?


----------



## mikey (Nov 26, 2013)

Elgar's In The South has a gorgeous slow section featuring the viola. He arranged it for viola and piano titled 'Canto Popolare'.

Arthur Benjamin's Viola Sonata is a pretty awesome piece recorded by Primrose no less


----------



## pjang23 (Oct 8, 2009)




----------



## guy (Jan 4, 2014)

Does anyone else share the opinion that the viola has a better tone than the violin?


----------



## musicrom (Dec 29, 2013)

guy said:


> Does anyone else share the opinion that the viola has a better tone than the violin?


Yes

-Sincerely, completely unbiased violist


----------



## Blake (Nov 6, 2013)

A wonderful instrument, indeed.


----------



## senza sordino (Oct 20, 2013)

I bought this CD a few weeks ago









Some lovely music. I especially like the piece by Richard Harvey, written 1990 and revised 2012. The CD is the premier recording.
*Bax Phantasy for Viola and Orchestra; Holland Ellingham Marshes for Viola and Orchestra; RVW Suite for Viola and Orchestra; Harvey Reflections for Viola and Orchestra* performed by BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Stephen Bell and Viola Rogre Chase, Richard Harvey conducted his own piece.

I had a viola for a few weeks. My hands are big enough to play a viola, it has a nice rich sound, but I couldn't read alto clef so I was limited in what I could play. I was only borrowing the viola for a short time and had to return it.

BTW, the viola has a muted sound compard to a cello and violin because it's too small for the strings it carries. For its strings, it should be half the size of a cello; and for its actual size, its strings should be tuned higher.


----------



## Avey (Mar 5, 2013)

_Alassio!_ In the South!


----------



## Alfacharger (Dec 6, 2013)

Berlioz, Harold in Italy symphony. My favorite work by him. Link to the third movement below.


----------



## Jos (Oct 14, 2013)

Ernest Bloch, suite Hebraique is beautiful.

Cheers,
Jos


----------



## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

I'm a fan of Bartok's violin sonatas and always wondered how they'd sound if arranged for viola (esp. the solo sonata) - and his viola concerto, although finished by others, is a beaut. I also like the viola version of Berg's Four Pieces for Clarinet & Piano.

But I have to say that when it came to writing for the viola, Hindemith is my man.


----------



## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

Jos said:


> Ernest Bloch, suite Hebraique is beautiful.
> 
> Cheers,
> Jos


Quite agree.


----------



## Jobis (Jun 13, 2013)

Brilliant!


----------



## dgee (Sep 26, 2013)

Thanks Jobis - a ray of sunshine. Sciarrino can sparkle like few others!


----------



## Blake (Nov 6, 2013)

Scelsi wrote several pieces for the viola. This might scare off the more traditionally inclined, but I think it's excellent.


----------



## dgee (Sep 26, 2013)

Scelsi also wrote Coelocanth for Viola (1955) and if that's not a great title I'll eat my hat


----------

