Zimmermann’s playing is profoundly thoughtful, leading to flawlessly structured readings...Perhaps most remarkable is Zimmermann’s breathtakingly skilful performance of the Sarabandes in which the differentiation of detail within a contrapuntal texture sounds almost as if two instruments are playing...Superbly recorded in a richly resonant ambience, this is an unusual and compelling release.

[The Kurtág pieces] are powerfully direct in expression while displaying the greatest compositional skill and subtlety...As for her Bach, it is a joy. I sometimes wonder if these suites work better on the viola than they do on the cello, so much do they gain in lightness and agility. Certainly in Zimmermann’s hands they are airborne, free to race and play, dance with nimble feet or graceful swings, and sing with clean, sweetly floated line.

Using a classical bow, light and swift for clear articulation, she nevertheless plays a modern viola, her 1980 instrument made by the celebrated French luthier Étienne Vatelot. Its rich, even sound is given maximum bloom in this spacious recording.

It comes as a revelation to hear Bach’s cello suites performed on a viola by this great German musician, Tabea Zimmermann. Here they have a dynamism never achieved on the cello, and her playing has a wonderful eagerness and persuasiveness. But the six works by the enigmatic Gyorgy Kurtag – who devotedly plays Bach on the piano - are no less of a revelation: with the shortest lasting just 45 seconds and three just over one minute, their grouping (by Zimmerman) into a suite to echo Bach’s six-movement works creates a brand-new sound-world.