Cancelled: Of Flowers and Nightingales

Sadly, and for no apparent reason, the repertoire for the viola isn’t as densely packed as that for the violin or cello; the instrument often lives a rather unfortunate shadowy existence, especially between these two.

But still, there are some truly special gems in the viola repertoire that really bring out the warm, velvety sound of the instrument. In this programme, we want to showcase some of the best - but unfortunately rarely played - works from this repertoire, and for that, we’ve gone on a little journey into the realms of salon music, (early) classical and late baroque, and last but not least the world of song.

We freely admit that we have also borrowed from other instruments' repertoire: for example, Beethoven's variations on 'Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen' from Mozart's Magic Flute were originally written for cello, but because this piece is too good to be played by just one instrument, we are presenting a professional viola arrangement here.

In our eyes, special mention should be made of the song 'Still wie die Nacht' by the German composer Carl Bohm, which unfortunately has fallen into obscurity.

We believe that the music world would be much poorer without this song, and so we have included it in the programme.

We really hope that you can enjoy our little excursion into the wonderful world of the viola.