Cayman pianist teams with Grammy-nominated star
Cayman’s piano genius Glen Inanga is releasing a new CD in collaboration with renowned viola star Eliesha Nelson.
The album is called Russian Viola Sonatas and features pre-Revolutionary Russian viola pieces plus early Soviet period compositions, two of which are world premieres.
“It felt truly exciting to be exploring a work that we had never heard performed before, and developing an interpretation of our own was a significant challenge,” Glen tells us.
“We relied heavily on our musical experience as well as musical instinct with further clues arising from notation details in the score.”
Glen and Eliesha have been friends since the mid-’90s when both attended the Royal Academy of Music in London. The opportunity to work together came about due to the success of Eleisha’s debut recordings of Quincy Porter’s music for viola. That album drew her Grammy nominations for best intrumental soloist performance with orchestra and best chamber music performance. The album won a Grammy for best engineered classical album. Following this debut glory, record label Sono Luminus then approached her regarding a project on Russian Viola Sonatas and the rest is history.
Rich yet virtuosic
“The viola,” says Eliesha, “is held between the chin and shoulder like the violin, but is a larger instrument. It has a deeper tone, more like the range of the human voice, and I find the sound lush and rich yet virtuosic. I played violin until the viola caught my interest at age 23. It’s a bit later than most when choosing to switch instruments, but when I began to play the instrument, I related to the sound and felt I could express myself better through this instrument.
“Since it is a mid-range voice, between the violin and cello, a few composers have left it in that middle, sort of filler range, rarely giving the instrument much to do. But this is not always the case. Many other composers have seen the expressive nature of the instrument, and utilise its rich tonality and technical flair,” she notes.
The turn of the century in Russia, adds Eliesha, was such an interesting and turbulent time. She says she finds that the pieces on the album reflect the complexity of the era.
“My goal is also to show the naysayers who think there is no good music written for the viola, how much good music there is! Since switching to viola, I have become a diehard convert. I have no interest in playing music written for the violin, especially if I have already played it on violin, and same goes with cello transcriptions.
“My exception are works written by Bach, whom I think was a timeless and pure composer whose music somehow crosses over instruments. There are composers, such as the ones I have recorded, who understand the viola’s instrumental possibilities and were wonderful composers. Their works are lost in the bowels of libraries just waiting for curious people to dig them out and learn them. There is so much good music that is not published anymore.”
The album is available from www.somnoluminus.com
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