Programme to include works by: Peter Walton, Adam Gorb, Roderick Williams and Alessandro Scarlatti
A carefully curated programme showcasing both the lyrical warmth and expressive depth of the viola. From the baroque refinement of Alessandro Scarlatti to contemporary works by British composers, this recital celebrates the instrument’s remarkable versatility and voice.
Peter Mallinson and Matthias Wiesner are members of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and have been giving concerts together as a Viola Duo since 2013, performing regularly around the UK and Europe.
They first played duos together as part of an outreach project in South Korea while on tour with the BBCSO and, since then have been drawn into its rich, exciting, varied, and far-more-extensive-than-you-might-think repertoire. Not simply exploring the music for two unaccompanied violas, they also perform repertoire for two violas and piano, two violas and cello, and other combinations where the two-viola sound is at the fore.
Realising that information about the repertoire for viola duos is not easy to follow up, they have currently recorded (and written detailed liner notes) for two CDs on the Meridian Records label – Music for Two Violas (CDE84641) and A Tale of Two Violas (CDE84652). These CDs explore the history of the repertoire with a focus on music that the two first great pioneers of the instrument – England’s Lionel Tertis and Russia’s Vadim Borisovsky – either influenced, inspired, or wrote themselves.
Not content with leaving the repertoire as it stands, Peter and Matthias work closely with many composers and arrangers. One such collaboration with Simon Rowland-Jones led to the completion of Frank Bridge’s duo, Caprice; a work written and performed by Bridge and Tertis in 1912 but then lost except for some sketches. Peter and Matthias “re-premiered” it in 2018. They have also commissioned a number of original compositions and arrangements from leading British composers, helping to expand and enrich the viola duo repertoire.