Hans Werner Henze's output is primarily dominated by large-scale, representative musical genres with a richly differentiated instrumental tonal palette: opera and other forms of musical theatre works, ballet, solo concertos and cantatas and also music for large-scale orchestra or chamber ensemble. In contrast, the chamber music works which Henze has composed throughout his entire compositional career right up to the present day have always remained somewhat on the sidelines. Many of these chamber music works had been composed for specific occasions, chiefly to honour figures who had accompanied him on longer or shorter stretches of his journey through life.

Henze composed An Brenton in July 1993 for an event commemorating the Australian violinist Brenton Langbein who had just died. The violinist had been a long-standing leader of the Collegium Musicum Zurich, the orchestra established and conducted by Paul Sacher, and was subsequently also the leader of the Basel Chamber Orchestra [Basler Kammerorchester].He additionally held a violin class at the Music Academy in Basel for a substantial period of his career. Interestingly enough, this piece is not composed for the violinist's instrument, but instead for solo viola. The work was given its first performance on 15 July 1993 by Jurg Dahler, one of the two viola players of the Chamber Musicians of Zurich [KammermusikerZurich]. This ensemble had been formed by Langbein in 1962: it frequently included compositions by Henze in its programmes and had given the premiere of Henze's music for Volker Schlondorffs Film Der junge Torless in its transformation as the Fantasia of the same name for string sextet (1967) in 1968. Langbein was the soloist in the first performance of Henze's Violin Concerto No. 2 in 1972 which had been commissioned by Paul Sacher. Henze had already made acquaintance with Langbein during the 1960s.

If you enjoyed Volume 1, you'll love Volume 2. Here are 10 more great pieces arranged for pure solo viola - no piano required! This collection has more than 30 minutes of classical and patriotic songs ideally suited for formal recitals, wedding celebrations, and background music gigs.

These are not just lame copies of the melody line; they are all fully worked out arrangements designed to be as rich as possible and to highlight the viola. These are direct transcriptions of the original "Pure Cello" series, now available for viola. As a professional cellist, I originally arranged these pieces for my personal use, and I have performed every one of them in public.

These are fairly challenging pieces; I would compare their difficulty to Bach Cello Suite #2 on the easy side and Bruch Cello Concerto on the harder side. But with some practice you will have some amazing additions to your solo repertoire.

Each of the songs in this collection is also available separately, but buying the full volume saves you over 60%.

Volume 2 contains the following:
1. Bach Toccata in D Minor
2. Brahms Hungarian Dance #5
3. Bizet Carmen Medley
4. Tchaikovsky Romeo and Juliet Introduction & Love Theme
5. Tchaikovsky Symphony #5, Finale (excerpt)
6. Debussy Clair de Lune
7. Sousa Washington Post March
8. Vieuxtemp Variations on "Yankee Doodle"
9. Meacham American Patrol
10. Smith The Star-Spangled Banner