Clarke: Viola & Violin Sonatas

Album review

Rebecca Clarke's Viola Sonata has found a solid place on concert programs, propelled by the twin strengths of being for an instrument that doesn't have a lot of solo repertory and of fitting into the ongoing rediscovery of music by women. Clarke entered it anonymously into a 1919 Philadelphia competition, and it ended up in a tie with a viola sonata by Ernest Bloch; jurors were shocked to learn that a woman had written it, and Clarke lost only due to the deciding vote of the patroness, Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge. It is a rich work that brings the Brahmsian line of thought into the 20th century, with hints of English pastoralism and Impressionist harmonies. Violinist Judith Ingolfsson and pianist Vladimir Stoupel, who are married, deliver a straightforward, relaxed performance of the work. Of equal importance here are the performances of the Violin Sonata in D major and the fragmentary Violin Sonata in G major. These are earlier works that reflect the influence of Clarke's teacher, Charles Villiers Stanford, and, in turn, his admiration for Brahms. However, they reveal a distinctive voice from the composer, then in her early twenties, and they have apparently never been recorded before together with Viola Sonata and with the same player on all the works. Sample the lovely slow movement of the Violin Sonata in G major, a unique kind of oasis from the motivic tensions of the outer movements. The Oehms Classics label's studio sound from Berlin's Haus des Rundfunks is ideal, and this is, in multiple ways, an important contribution to the Clarke discography.

© James Manheim /TiVo