Two Violas: Regeneration
Peter Mallinson, Matthias Wiesner
Lynn Arnold, piano*

Regeneration is re-creation, contemporary work inspired by the past, lost or neglected work given fresh life for the present. Two Violas: Regeneration, which features many premiere recordings, explores repertoire which, in different ways, embodies this creative approach.??Detlev Glanert’s The Pleiades evokes myths surrounding the star cluster of the same name. Sally Beamish’s Prelude and Canon draws on centuries-old Scottish soundscapes, whereas Raymond Yiu and Peter Letanka, in Three Shidaiqu Transcriptions and Gershwinian Nostalgia respectively, have chosen influences from their own past to highlight and develop. Iain Farrington follows J.S. Bach’s lead, re-imagining the Sonata in G minor (BWV 1029) with an alternative scoring, whereas the works of Alexander Wunderer and York Bowen, the first long overlooked and the second newly rediscovered, see the light of today after decades in the shadows. ??These works, like the Gibbons Two Fantasias and the arrangement by Dan Jenkins of Edward Elgar’s The Wild Bears, all look back to the past from the perspective of a different time, place or sensitivity. But through their composition (or adaptation) for two violas, they also enrich a tradition of writing for this ensemble which dates back more than three hundred years, and which is no less vital as a means of expression today. The past is always with us. ?