Robert Lach (1874-1958) Sonatas for Viola d'Amore

[Alan Howe]

...forthcoming from Brilliant Classics:
https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/sonatas-lyrische-stucke/hnum/2468995
More details here:
http://www.nandoperettifound.org/en/page.php?project=457

[Alan Howe]

Very Brahmsian stuff, this, with the main interest (obviously) centring on the use of the viola d'amore. As played here, with a minimum of vibrato, it sounds very like a viola, although there's a certain warmth which is really quite attractive -presumably the effect of the instrument's extra 'sympathetic strings'.

Altogether a set well worth acquiring for fans of tuneful late-romantic chamber music. Something to soothe the soul...

[Claude Torres]

Robert Lach. A great anti-Semite
However here is the Brilliant booklet

https://issuu.com/klassiek.nl/docs/95321_robert_lach-digital-booklet-0

Claude

[Alan Howe]

I nearly deleted the previous post - not because it isn't true, but because we've been down this avenue before and it leads nowhere. So, let's please concentrate on the music otherwise logic dictates that we would have to vet every composer for any objectionable views before permitting discussion of their music...

[Double-A]

It is interesting to listen to the "teasers".  I think on the whole well played (would have to have the whole movements for a sounder judgement).  The viola d'amore has generally six strings which makes the danger of accidentally playing unintended "double stops" larger than on the four string standard instruments.  The into-the-string intensity often used for romantic music was therefor probably not an option and the player found a way with modest and varying vibrato, with portamentos etc. to get expressive results.  I might have wished some tempi faster--when a composer writes a four word marking like "allegro assai quasi presto" he does not want it to sound like allegretto.  That may have added more contrast and moderated  the somewhat Biedermeier character of the music.

Questions that occur:

The viola d'amore has a different tuning pattern from a viola making unusual double stops playable (not to mention the option of scordatura).  Baroque music for the instrument often make extensive use of this option; why didn't Lach?  Not one double stop in all of the excerpts from both disks.

If a violist decided to perform this music on the viola:  Would it lose much?  (My answer is no).