Violist
Garth Knox played with the
Arditti Quartet and the
Ensemble InterContemporain before branching out into a career as a soloist. This CD features a number of his works for ensembles for from two to five violas, as well as works including viola d'amore, clarinet, violin, cello, and tuba. His eight-movement Viola Spaces is a theme with variations, each one capitalizing on a single technique, such as pizzicato, glissandi, harmonics, tremolo, and so on. While it would be easy for the limitations
Knox places upon himself to turn the movements into monochromatic exercises, he uses each device so inventively that the piece never loses momentum, and holds the listener's attention with his skillful manipulation of the material. In a more conventionally structured piece like Viola Spaces Variations on Marin Marais, for four violas,
Knox's imaginative and idiomatic variations avoid cliché and result in a fascinating and appealing work.
Knox's versatility as a composer is demonstrated in his more eclectic and stylistically adventurous works, such as Jonah and the Whale for viola and tuba and Ockeghem Fantasy for viola d'amore and five violas. The works for viola ensemble are so attractive in the diversity of their sonorities that it makes one wonder why the ensemble has not inspired the kind of repertoire that the multiple cello ensemble has.
Knox's expertise on both viola and viola d'amore is evident in his virtuosic performances, and his level of playing is matched by the other performers. Mode's sound is clean and present.