George Frederick Handel's Trio Sonata No.23, original for 2 treble recorders, in a version for 2 violas or 2 clarinets and basso continuo.

Key: Gmin, Level: medium

The selection of six solo songs creates a link from lively serenity over irony until to solemn severity. In this version for clarinet or viola and string orchestra the selected song compositions get a sharply contoured sound.

1.Abendempfindung, 2. An Chloe (4:22), 3. Ridente la calma (7:00), 4. Sehnsucht nach dem Frühling (9:57), 5. Un moto di gioja (10:2), 6 Warnung (10:38).

Johannes Brahms wrote his last chamber music work, the E-flat major Sonata, op. 120, 2, three years before his death for the clarinetist Richard Mühlfeld. The fact that he published it alternatively for viola had to do with the then still noticeable lack of good wind players. The work consists of three movements. After a lovely opening movement in quiet Allegro, there follows a Scherzo in E-flat minor, with a
very song-like middle section in B major. The finale is a set of variations (theme and 6 variations) in Andante cantabile. Some of these are very developed character variations. The version with string orchestra transfers the piano movement to the manifold possibilities of an orchestra and forms completely new tonal aspects of this wonderful composition.
Clarinet: Viola:

Robert Schumann's "Myrten" op. 25, written in 1840, is a song cycle in four booklets that Schumann dedicated to his bride Clara Wieck and gave her as a wedding present on September 12, 1840.

From it the following titles:
1. Widmung, 2. Freisinn (1:57), 3. Der Nussbaum (3:04). 4. Die Lotosblume (5:57), 5. Talismane (7:40). 6. Zum Schluss (9:33)

A poet's love is a cycle of 16 songs by the composer Robert Schumann, whose Opus 48 was one of the highlights of the romantic art song. The cycle was written in 1840 for poems from Heinrich Heine's "Lyrisches Intermezzo", a collection of 65 poems that had appeared in tragedies together with a lyrical intermezzo in 1823, then in the Book of Songs in 1827. Of the 20 songs composed, 16 were finally printed.
Here is a version for clarinet or viola and string orchestra with completely new sound aspects.
9. Das ist ein Flöten und Geigen, 10. Hör ich das Liedchen klingen (1:27), 11. Ein Jüngling liebt ein Mädchen (2:54), 12. Am leuchtenden Sommermorgen (3:54), 13. Ich hab im Traum geweinet (5:58), 14. Allnächtlich im Traume (7: 53), 15. Aus alten Märchen winkt es (8:57), 16. Die alten, bösen Lieder (11:14)

Transcription following the song "An Chloë" by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, KV 524. Level: medium.(clarinet & piano)

For free!

The first booklet of the "Songs without words" (op.19 composed about 1829-30) was initially called Melodies for the Pianoforte. The current version makes a division of the piano part into a viola and a piano voice. The keys are adjusted, the ranges of the viola are reduced..

3 Duos B. 544 - 546 by Ignaz Pleyel in the version for violin and viola after the edition of I. Pleyel, Paris.
Correction of mistakes and transcription into modern notation. Both parts are set quite virtuosic. The rediscovery of this group of pieces is a real enrichment of the duo literature.  

Level: medium - advanced

Reduced bundle price

The work probably goes back to the four-part poem Märchenbilder, which the Berlin poet Louis du Rieux sent to Schumann on February 19, 1851, asking him to choose the verses as a model for a "sonata". Schumann's response was positive. The composition was written shortly afterwards, between March 1 and 4, 1851
The premiere took place on November 12, 1853 as part of a soiree given by Clara Schumann in the hall of the hotel "Zum goldenen Stern" on Bonn's Marktplatz. The viola part was played by Wilhelm Joseph von Wasielewski, the dedicatee of the work and later Schumann's biographer.
The cycle, consisting of four lyrical character pieces, is one of the few original compositions for viola and piano. Here is a version for viola and string orchestra in the original keys.

These are originally concertos for four solo violins, but without any accompaniment. Perhaps they were intended as practice pieces for violin students or the violinists of the court chapels. Here is an arrangement for violas or violoncellos, transposed to the lower fifth. Thus a mixed or choral instrumentation is also possible.

Level: medium

Duo B. 546 by Ignaz Pleyel in the version for violin and viola after the edition of I. Pleyel, Paris.
Correction of mistakes and transcription into modern notation. Both parts are set quite virtuosic. The rediscovery of this group of pieces is a real enrichment of the duo literature.

Level: medium - advanced,

Transcription of six songs by Johannes Brahms. Level: medium.(clarinet & piano)

Transcription following the song "Abendempfindung" by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, KV 523. Level: medium.(clarinet & piano)

Transcription following the song "Ridente la calma" by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, KV 152. Level: medium.(clarinet & piano)

Transcription following the song "Un moto di gioja" by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, KV 579. Level: medium.(clarinet & piano)