Description
The first titled “Prayer”, and the other, “Romance”.
Henryk Wieniawski, 19th Century Polish violinist and composer, is regarded as one of the greatest violinist virtuosos of all time. Sticking to what he was good at, he thus wrote two violin concerti plus numerous other works, almost entirely for violin and many of them very flashy – did I mention he was a violinist?
Of course, where he went wrong, as is so often the case, is that he died before turning his attention to the many works he had doubtless planned for the viola.
So to remedy that I have taken the slow movements from both his concerti and made them into viola quartets.
A striking feature of both these works is that they are refreshingly free from all the acrobatics and pyrotechnics that are a feature of the other movements, leaving pure passion, romanticism with a tasteful sprinkling of schmaltz. Guaranteed to have your audiences swooning in the aisles. 9 mins. M
