Various: Ohne Worte (Without Words) (Sony Audio CD)

Mentors like Gerhard Schulz (Alban Berg Quartet) and Yuri Bashmet have already predicted that a great career lies ahead of the 30-year-old violist Nils Mönkemeyer. He is already one of his generation's leading viola players, with many competition
wins to his name, including the UK’s Parkhouse Award in 2009, and the International Yuri Bashmet Competition in 2006. For his Sony Classical début Ohne Worte (Without Words)
Nicholas Rimmer have put together a recital programme that highlights the viola's '
Schubert, Mendelssohn and Schumann have been arranged as songs without words for the viola. The recital is completed by Schubert's Arpeggione sonata in the version for viola and piano. In selecting the songs to arrange, Mönkemeyer
foremost on the vocal line rather than the lyrics known song cycles Liederkreis and Dichterliebe.
By way of contrast, the remaining works heard here by Mendelssohn and Schubert are arrangements of original instrumental pieces. Mendelssohn composed his Songs W
sonata of 1823 for the six-stringed instrument of the same name
Mönkemeyer; "the melodies flow more naturally and major leaps are
underlying idea that inspired this sonata is that of a song."