Lawrence Power
Violist Lawrence Power has been one of the few players of his instrument to achieve international renown since the days of William Primrose. He has been prominent both as a concerto soloist and as a chamber music player.
Power was born in 1977. He began playing the viola at age eight, choosing the instrument over the violin because he was tall for his age. Unlike most other viola players, he has never studied the violin. He enrolled in music classes at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama at 11, finding a capable teacher in Alexander Technique exponent Mark Knight. When he was 18, he went to New York for a year at the Juilliard School, and back in England the following year, he began entering competitions. His efforts were capped by a first-place showing at the William Primrose International Viola Competition in 1999. Another breakthrough was designation as a BBC New Generation Artist for a two-year term beginning in 2001. The following year, he released his debut album, Lawrence Power, Viola, on the Harmonia Mundi label.
Power turned down a position as first violist in the Berlin Philharmonic in favor of a solo career, which began with a performance with the Philharmonia Orchestra and has grown to encompass appearances as a soloist with the London Symphony, BBC Symphony, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, and Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, among many others. He performed the Mozart Sinfonia Concertante for violin, viola, and orchestra in E flat major, K. 364, with Maxim Vengerov (at the latter's invitation) in 2006 at the BBC Proms and has returned for many further performances there. Power has had an unusually vigorous recording career, both solo and with the Nash Ensemble and the Leopold String Trio. In 2005, Power moved to the Hyperion label for the recorded premiere of a concerto by York Bowen, and he has continued to record for that label. The year 2016 saw the release of Power's Fin-de-siècle Viola Music for Hyperion, featuring Simon Crawford-Phillips, a frequent performing and recording partner, on piano. In 2018, Power joined recorder player Genevieve Lacey for an album of music by Erkki-Sven Tüür on the Ondine label. He made several more recordings for Hyperion, and in the early 2020s, he appeared on two albums on the BIS label, 2020's Voices of Angels, and, in 2023, joined the Kungsbacka Piano Trio for a recording of Schumann's early Piano Quartet in C minor.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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Hindemith: Complete Viola Music, Vol. 3 – Music for Viola and Orchestra
Lawrence Power, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, David Atherton
Klassiek - Released by Hyperion on 31 jan. 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms: String Quintets Nos. 1 & 2
Takács Quartet, Lawrence Power
Klassiek - Released by Hyperion on 30 mrt. 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Hindemith: Complete Viola Music, Vol. 1 – Viola Sonatas
Lawrence Power, Simon Crawford-Phillips
Klassiek - Released by Hyperion on 1 jun. 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
MacMillan: Symphony No. 4 & Viola Concerto
Lawrence Power, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Martyn Brabbins
Klassiek - Released by Hyperion on 29 mei 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Fin de siècle: Late Romantic Music for Viola & Piano
Lawrence Power, Simon Crawford-Phillips
Klassiek - Released by Hyperion on 30 sep. 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms: Viola Sonatas Nos. 1 & 2, Op. 120; Viola Trio, Op. 114
Lawrence Power, Simon Crawford-Phillips, Tim Hugh
Klassiek - Released by Hyperion on 1 mrt. 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Arthur Benjamin: Violin Sonatina & Viola Sonata
Lawrence Power, Simon Crawford-Phillips
Klassiek - Released by Hyperion on 1 jun. 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo