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Viola Music

While resident in the US in 1919, Rebecca Clarke entered her Viola Sonata in a composition competition sponsored by patron of the arts Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge. Out of a field of 72 entrants, Clarke's piece was adjudged the joint winner, unluckily losing out via Coolidge's casting vote to Ernest Bloch's Suite for Viola and Piano, a similarly excellent piece. Something must have been in the water that year, as it also saw the publication of Paul Hindemith's wonderful Op. 11 No.4 Viola Sonata.

Might her career have flourished more fruitfully had she won? Perhaps, but the obstacles in her way were formidable: entrenched sexism; the demands of family life; persistent depression. Most of her major compositions date from the latter 1910's and the early '20s, with only sporadic creative episodes thereafter. I can't recall if I read about her work before hearing it or vice versa, but it was after listening to a movement from her Viola Sonata on BBC Radio 3 that I ordered this CD.

The Sonata is its main attraction, and the first work on the disc. It's followed by an assortment of smaller-scale pieces for viola and piano, such as the lovely song without words 'I´ll bid my heart be still'. The violist here is Philip Dukes, and the pianist Sophia Rahman. The final two compositions introduce other instruments: Daniel Hope on violin joins the duo for a plaintive 'Dumka', while in the slightly spikier 'Prelude, Allegro And Pastorale', Rahman's place is taken by Robert Plane on clarinet. The recording and performances are very good: it's an absorbing and rewarding disc.

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