Classical home listening - from Tabea Zimmermann to Walter Kaufmann

The Guardian 0

The German violist Tabea Zimmermann pairs Bach with Kurtág, while the ARC Ensemble showcase a forgotten émigré composer

• If you’ve queried the point of listening to a Bach cello suite played on the viola, Tabea Zimmermann’s Solo II (Myrios Classics; released 16 October) renders the question unnecessary. Her new album comes a decade after Solo, in which she recorded the first two suites. Now she tackles, with supreme elegance, No 3 in C and No 4 in E flat, her performance buoyant, lithe, with a flexible attention to ornament and phrasing. Using a classical bow, light and swift for clear articulation, she nevertheless plays a modern viola, her 1980 instrument made by the celebrated French luthier Étienne Vatelot. Its rich, even sound is given maximum bloom in this spacious recording.

The Bach is paired with Signs, Games and Messages for solo viola by György Kurtág (b1926): six movements, rhythmically free and dramatic, gathered together by Zimmermann. She is the dedicatee of … eine Blume für Tabea…, a shard of Kurtág enchantment.