Atar Arad and Friends release groundbreaking album Partita Party, an innovative celebration of Bach’s masterpiece featuring new compositions for solo viola.
Acclaimed violist Atar Arad is proud to announce the release of his latest album, Partita Party, an imaginative new work for solo viola inspired by J.S. Bach’s Partita No. 2 for Solo Violin. The piece includes movements by Arad and four other violist- composers (all of whom studied with Arad), reimagining the compositional process in an innovative and collaborative way.
Atar Arad, known for his exceptional virtuosity and innovative spirit, composed his Ciaccona as a commission for the 2021 Hindemith International Viola Competition. It is deeply inspired by Arad’s pandemic work on Bach’s Chaconne, and yet it is unmistakably his own. This Ciaccona concludes the Partita and is the inspiration for this vibrant dialogue between Bach’s masterpiece and the unique voices of the five composers.
Duncan Steele’s Allemanda opens the program and uses structure and melodic contours inspired by Bach, with the main theme of the piece based around the 12-tone row from Atar’s Ciaccona. Yuval Gotlibovich imagined the “running” of his Corrente as tiptoeing repeated notes, and writes that “the sounds that come out of my Corrente are colored in flamenco red.” Melia Watras is drawn to the Saranada for the depth of emotion offered by the form. She includes a dedication taken from Anner Bylsma’s writing about the cello suites – “The Void After the Second Beat (is Wonderful).” Rose Wollman’s Giga plays with rhythm and harmony in a way that pays homage to Bach with a slippery sense of tonality and lots of rhythmic variation.
The work was premiered and recorded by the composers in October 2023 at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington, IN. Partita Party is an exciting new addition to the viola repertoire and a celebration of Bach’s enduring legacy.
Israeli violist Atar Arad is one of today’s preeminent performer-composers. The First Prize winner at the International Viola Competition in Geneva in 1972, Arad has been on the national stage for over 50 years. He was the violist of the esteemed Cleveland Quartet, and taught at Rice, Carnegie Mellon and is now Professor of Music (Viola) at Indiana University.
“Partita Party” will be available for purchase and streaming on all major digital platforms starting October 25, 2024. For more information about the album and the artists, please visit http://www.sbovmusic.com.
What They’re Saying about Partita Party
Violinist.com, review
Classical Music Daily, review