It must draw the audience in; make them part of the performance. Something that the vastness and anonymity of an orchestra finds hard to achieve.

Mozart modernised Handel's Messiah, and Schubert frequently recycled his fabulous melodies. Many great composers liked to arrange and re-arrange their own music: Bach's Art of Fugue is not written for any particular instrument, rather any combination that can preserve the linear integrity of the four human voices. Folk music is always up-for-grabs, and early music originally scored for instruments that are no longer widely used could do with an update. The challenge is to see just what a viola quartet can do with a piece. I hope we have succeeded.

We call it violaization, i.e. the conversion of a piece of music into the language of the viola quartet.

Here is a rather extreme example from Beethoven: the third variation from his amazing Opus 111 Piano Sonata. Not an easy piece to read, you must agree, and note the unusual time signature! After some careful 'violaization', and without changing a single note, it became Beethoven Boogie. The title was Ross's fault. He was having his mid-life crisis at the time, and thought it was just begging to be called Boogie - admittedly, perfectly understandable if you've heard it. It later became the 7th track on the CD album which is only available from this website. So what are you waiting for? Go to the Shopping Cart and buy a copy.