4766369 Various: Garth Knox - D'Amore - Garth Knox, viola d'amore; Agnès Vesterman, cello

4766369 Various: Garth Knox - D'Amore - Garth Knox, viola d'amore; Agnès Vesterman, cello

Label - ECM

Cat. No. - 4766369

Including KNOX Malor me bat; MARAIS Folies; MOSER Manners of Speaking; HUME Pavan; ARIOSTI Prima Lezione; Trad Celtic Dance; Jig: I once loved a lass; HUBER Plainte pour Luigi Nono

Music for Viola d'amore from 1600 to the present day by Hume, Marais, Ariosti, Huber, Moser, Knox and from Celtic traditional sources

One of today's most versatile and adventurous violists, member of the famous Arditti quartet for eight years, makes his solo debut on ECM - on the viola d'amore. Repertoire from Tobias Hume (early 17th century) to contemporary compositions, plus folk music and a gripping piece by Knox himself

Entertaining and highly intelligent programme concept, bridging old and new, traditional and more abstract music, typical of ECM New Series from its outset. Virtuosic music played with temperament and gusto

The viola d'amore's 7 playing & 7 resonating strings give a particularly full and warm sound, superbly recorded

"Once a friend in Italy lent me a viola d'amore for a few days. I was quickly seduced by the gentle sweet sound of the seven playing strings (so rich in harmonics), and intrigued by the mysterious presence of the seven sympathetic strings which add an intimate resonance to everything that happens on the playing strings." Thus Garth Knox describes his love affair with the wonderful baroque instrument that was already a thing of the past in Mozart's time. Fascinated by its outstanding technical possibilities, Knox has experimented widely and naturally incorporated contemporary pieces here. While Swiss composer Klaus Huber's …Plainte… is based on Turkish scales, his countryman Roland Moser explores different Manners of Speaking, whereas Knox himself combines an arrangement of Ockeghem's Malor me bat with free improvisation. But the emotional and atmospheric spectrum is broader: there is highly attractive early music, including Ariosti's First Lesson, a masterpiece of the original viola d'amore repertoire, and two traditional Celtic pieces. For reasons of harmony and balance, Knox wrote cello parts for the pieces he arranged himself, here played by French cellist Agnès Vesterman.

Garth Knox, heard previously on ECM in the Arditti Quartet with quartets by Peter Ruzicka and on accordionist Frode Haltli's Passing Images (985 6022), was born in Ireland and grew up in Scotland. After seven years in the Ensemble Intercontemporain, his reputation spread when he played in the famous Arditti Quartet from 1990-98. He has premiered viola works by Henze, Ferneyhough, Schnittke, Ligeti and others, improvised with Joel Léandre, Dominique Pifarély, Bruno Chevillon and Steve Lacy, and his two solo viola CDs have been acclaimed. Agnès Vesterman was cellist of the Arpeggione Quartet from 1998-2001 and made many recordings. She's collaborated with improvising musicians such as Vincent Courtois and Ernst Reijseger and is co-founder of the Circé Ensemble.
Price: £13.50 (Including VAT at 15%)

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