The Strad Recommends: Rose Wollman: Breaking Glass Ceilings: Music by Unruly Women

THE STRAD RECOMMENDS

The Strad Issue: August 2024

Description: A new label more than lives up to its provocative title

Musicians: Rose Wollman (viola) Dror Baitel (piano)

Works: Beach: La captive; Berceuse; Mazurka. Clarke: Viola Sonata. Larsen: Viola Sonata. Price: Elfentanz

Catalogue number: SBOV MUSIC SB0124

This is the first release in a new, artist-led label with the promising name Sounds Better On Viola (it took me a while to figure out the acronym). I wasn’t familiar with the violin pieces by Florence Price and Amy Beach that bookend the programme, but they certainly sound completely convincing in their alto guise, Rose Wollman catching their varying moods – wistful and capricious by turns – with sensitivity and charm. The two main pieces are viola originals, one of them – the sonata by Rebecca Clarke – a repertoire staple in which competition is quite tough. Wollman and Dror Baitel present it in a poised, clearly structured reading. A rather closely balanced recording probably accounts for the somewhat restricted dynamic spectrum throughout the recital: more light and shade would have been particularly welcome in Clarke’s impressionistic sound world.

Libby Larsen wrote her Viola Sonata in 2001 for James Dunham (of Cleveland Quartet fame). Its three movements make for a most effective recital item, with lively rhythms, soulful song and a rare understanding of the viola’s strengths. Wollman wittily realises the composer’s instruction to swing rhythms, bend some intervals and scoop up to a few notes, with Baitel a like-minded, proactive partner. This exciting debut leaves me impatient for SBOV’s next releases, of which two are already in the pipeline.

CARLOS MARÍA SOLARE