Beethoven's popular Rondo arranged for Viola and Piano accompaniment by Watson Forbes.

This charming and humorous set of variations originally for mandolin and keyboard is arranged here for violin and piano by the distinguished performer Steven Isserlis. Originally composed in 1796 when Beethoven was twenty-six it shows the young genius at his most elegant.The work is ideally suited to the violin which has the same tuning as the mandolin. It will make a valuable addition to the repertoire of the more advanced player.

For Viola and Piano this is the composer's first opused work. Premiered at the Wigmore Hall in July 1959 by Cecil Aronowitz and Margaret Kitchen.Wood: In 1957 I knew I had newly discovered the music of Schoenberg and hispupils and I knew at once that they were to show me the way forward for my music; as indeed they have ever since. The revelation was primarily an emotional experience for me and however imperfectly their influence wasreceived it was obviously reflected in the all-out chromaticism (new for me then) in the many chains of twelve notes or lesser chromatic formations (which do not here amount to serial working and have only rarely done sosince) in the characteristic harmonic and rhythmic formations the wide and sometimes angular intervals of the melodies and in general the introverted romanticism. Anyway I knew then that this was the sort of music that Ihenceforth would want to write and so I called these Variations my Opus One.The declamatory Introduction leads into the Theme heard on the viola. Six Variations follow of which No.3 is the most violent and No.4 the mostsustainedly lyrical. The recitative-like sixth variation leads into the Finale a more extended movement. The Theme returning on the piano leads to a climax at which there is a citation from Beethoven’s C minor Variations forpiano. Then their characteristics sequence of chords is heard on the piano as an accompaniment to the final statement of my own theme on the viola in the closing bars of the work.

Edited by Joseph Boetje this collection includes works by Beethoven Mozart and Schubert with Piano accompaniment with separate viola part.

The accompaniment CD for the folio featuring: Adagio (Schubert) ? Allegretto (C.P.E. Bach) ? Andante (Mozart) ? Boston Fancy (Hornpipe) ? German Dance (Dittersdorf) ? I'm Just A-Goin' over Jordan ?March (Beethoven) ? Menuetto (Handel) ? O Mensch Bewein Dein Sunde Gross ? Romance ? Shenandoah ? Tambourin ? Theme and Variations (Marais) ? Verborgenheit (Wolf) ? Von Ewiger Liebe (Brahms)? Were You There?