He was too tonal for the serialists, too faithful to the spirit of
Bach for the neo-Romantics;
the Nazis didn't like the fact that he was equally faithful to his Jewish friends and accused
him of
Kulturbolschewismus. Still, we have these pieces that are a celebration of his main
instrument, the viola. The
Sonatas were written on a train journey from New York to Chicago
incorporating a near-perfect balance of color and form, intuition and discourse, with a central
pizzicato section that's remarkable.
