Timothy Ridout viola; Hélène Clément viola; Ting-Ru Lai viola; Matthew Lipman viola; Georgy Kovalev viola; James Baillieu piano

The first half of the last century saw a remarkable flowering of new music for viola, inspired in part by the influence of the great violist Lionel Tertis, in part by composer-performers such as Cecil Forsyth and Paul Hindemith. The Passacaglia from the latter’s expressionist Sonata for solo viola Op. 11 No. 5 provides a powerful contrast to the gentle lyricism and sparky energy of York Bowen’s two Duos and radiant beauty of his Romance in A. Timothy Ridout includes the rhapsodic eloquence of Forsyth’s Chanson Celtique and the Lament that Frank Bridge first performed at Wigmore Hall with Tertis in 1912.