Schubert & Shostakovich: Viola & Piano Andreas Willwohl & Daniel Heide

• Franz Schubert (1797 - 1828): Arpeggione Sonata in A Minor, D. 821:
• 1 Schubert: Arpeggione Sonata in A Minor, D. 821: I. Allegro moderato 11:27
• 2 Schubert: Arpeggione Sonata in A Minor, D. 821: II. Adagio 04:06
• 3 Schubert: Arpeggione Sonata in A Minor, D. 821: III. Allegretto 09:16
• Dmitri Shostakovich (1906 - 1975): Viola Sonata, Op. 147:
• 4 Shostakovich: Viola Sonata, Op. 147: I. Moderato 09:34
• 5 Shostakovich: Viola Sonata, Op. 147: II. Allegretto 07:15
• 6 Shostakovich: Viola Sonata, Op. 147: III. Adagio 15:25
• Total Runtime 57:03

Info for Schubert & Shostakovich: Viola & Piano

One of Schubert's legacies with one of his most beautiful compositions is the Arpeggione Sonata. Schubert took a liking to the bowed guitar, at least for one veritable work: the Sonata in A minor, composed in November 1824.

The Arpeggione instrument disappeared as quickly as it had arrived. All these attempts around 1800 to expand the family of string instruments had long been forgotten when Franz Schubert's Arpeggione Sonata was published for the first time 43 years after his death in 1871, immediately with alternative solo parts for violin, viola or violoncello.

Almost all violists and cellists have included Schubert's marvellous Arpeggione Sonata in their repertoire - thus keeping alive the memory of the attempt to make the proverbial 'pearl sounds' accessible for string instruments - for an eternity. Shostakovich's viola sonata conveys a special, gradually dissolving sense of time. It is neither at home today, nor yesterday, nor in the future, but in eternity. The composer himself said almost nothing about the work, except that it was "bright and clear".

He called the first two movements a "novella" and a "scherzo". About the finale, he revealed that it was "an adagio in memory of Beethoven". The Viola Sonata is Shostakovich's last work and, beyond personal consternation, it is an exploration of the last things, as many important composers have done; important references for Shostakovich were, for example, Beethoven's Sonata op. 111 or Mahler's Symphony No. 9 and Das Lied von der Erde.

Andreas Willwohl, viola
Daniel Heide, piano

Andreas Willwohl
is one of the leading violists of his generation. In a age of 14 he studied in the Specialist School for Music at Belvedere Castle in Weimar, later he commenced his studies at the “Franz Liszt” Musikhochschule in Weimar continuing a year later at the “Hanns Eisler” Musikhochschule in Berlin with Alfred Lipka and Wilfried Strehle.

Of great artistic incentive for him was the support of, inter alios, Christoph Poppen, Thomas Kakuska and Kim Kashkashian; in chamber music Norbert Brainin, Eberhard Feltz, Walter Levin, Andras Keller and the Alban Berg Quartet.

Andreas Willwohl has appeared at international music festivals such as the Schleswig-Holstein music festival, the Castle Concerts in Thun, the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, the Salzburger Festspiele, and has played with Guy Braunstein, Thomas Brandis, Wolfgang Böttcher, Nobuko Imai, Michael Sanderling, Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt, Johannes Moser, Isang Enders, Lauma Skride and Daniel Heide.

Andreas Willwohl has appeared as a soloist with several major orchestras, including the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Brandenburg Symphonie Orchestra, the Korean Chamber Orchestra, the German Chamber Orchestra Berlin and the Metamorphosen Chamber Philharmonic (Berlin), collaborating with conductors of the likes of Marek Janowski, Patrick Lange, Christoph Poppen, Matthias Foremny, Conrad van Alphen and Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt, and appearing in venues including the Berlin Philharmonie, Seoul Arts Center, Toppan Hall in Tokyo, the Auditorium in Dijon, and Metz Congress Hall. He is also been active as a chamber musician, and so he is the member of the Mandelring Stringquartet and of the Ensemble Ceres.

The winner of international awards, he received too a study grant from the German People’s Foundation for Study, and also from the Yehudi Menuhin foundation ‘Live music now’.

Andreas Willwohl has from 2001 to 2013 been principal violist in the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra. In 2011 Andreas Willwohl was appointed professor at Nuremberg University of Music, from 2018 to 2021 he was also a visiting professor at Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts. He has given master classes around the world.

After one of his appearances at the Berlin Philharmonie, a critic wrote: “Not since the Alban Berg Quartet’s Thomas Kakuska have I found the performance of a violist in a chamber music ensemble so utterly convincing.” Andreas Willwohl plays an instrument by Stefan Peter Greiner with a bow by Dominique Peccatte.

Daniel Heide
from Weimar, is one of the most sought-after accompanists and chamber music musicians of his generation, appearing regularly at venues including the Vienne, Berlin and Dortmund concert halls, London's Wigmore Hall, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Philharmonie in Paris, Teatro Zarzuela in Madrid, the Schubertiade in Schwarzenberg / Hohenems and Spain's Vilabertran, the Heidelberg Frühling (spring festival) and Oxford Lieder Festival. Regular partners include Andrè Schuen, Christoph Prégardien and Simone Kermes and he has appeared in recital with singers including Anne Schwanewilms, Regula Mühlemann, Roman Trekel, Christina Landshamer, Dietrich Henschel, Hanno Müller-Brachmann and Luca Pisaroni. He loves working on Melodramas with speakers and actors including Christian Brückner, Udo Samel, Thomas Thieme, Markus Meyer and Hanns Zischler. He worked closely with the German / Greek mezzo-soprano Stella Doufexis for many years: their CD Poemes, of Lieder by Debussy, won the German Recording Critics' prize. He appears in concert with musicians including Sabine Meyer, Tabea Zimmermann, Antje Weithaas, Jens Peter Maintz and Danjulo Ishizaka. He is the founder and artistic director of the concert series »Der lyrische Salon – recitals at Schloss Ettersburg«. His first CD, of Lieder by Schumann, Wolf and Frank Martin with Andrè Schuen (released by AVI), won a 2016 ECHO Klassikpreis in the category »Best Up and Coming Singer«. Their latest CD - Wanderer - with Schubert Lieder won an Opus-Klassik prize in 2019, the same year the first installment of all Lieder by Liszt was released.

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