Adrien La Marca and Thomas Hoppe - English Delight: stylish poise and broad taste

French viola-player Adrien La Marca, named Révélation soliste instrumental de l'année at the French Ministry of Culture's Victoires de la Musique in 2014, has chosen an all-English programme for what he calls "really my first professional disc".

His playing shows stylish poise and his taste is broad- ranging. He sandwiches Britten's Lachrymae between the Dowland which inspired it and two pieces by Britten's teacher, Frank Bridge.

Jonathan Harvey's microtonal Chant rubs shoulders with Vaughan Williams's Studies in English Folksong.

The most substantial work in this sensitive recital – Thomas Hoppe is a hand-in-glove partner – is Rebecca Clarke's imposing but still under-appreciated Viola Sonata of 1919.

[ ladolcevolta.com ]