SCHUBERT · SHOSTAKOVICH

Violist Andreas Willwohl and pianist Daniel Heide release their new album on our partner label CAvi music, featuring Schubert’s Arpeggione Sonata and Shostakovich’s Viola Sonata. The bowed guitar (Arpeggione) stayed around for only a very short time and had long been forgotten when Schubert’s Arpeggione Sonata was first published 43 years after his death in 1871, and so it was published with alternative solo parts for violin, viola, or violoncello. The work has since struck a chord with violists and cellists in particular, who all enjoy performing the work.  

Described by the composer himself as “bright and clear”, Shostakovich’s Viola Sonata conveys a special, gradually dissolving sense of time. He called the first two movements a “novella” and a “scherzo”. He described the finale as “an adagio in memory of Beethoven”. The piece is Shostakovich’s last work, and, beyond personal consternation, it is an exploration of “last things”, as many important composers have done.