Alexander Grechaninov saw much change in the course of his long life (1864–1956), fleeing Revolutionary Russia into exile, first in Paris and then the United States.

A member of the second generation of nationalist composers – he was a student of Rimsky-Korsakov and Taneyev – he never abandoned an essentially Russian lyricism.

These attractive unknown viola works are as good as unknown: several are unpublished, and two of them are in Elena Artanomova’s own transcriptions for viola.

The CD is released to mark the 150th anniversary of Grechaninov’s birth this year. It is dedicated to the memory of Alexander Ivashkin (1948–2014), who supervised the research that made the recording possible.

The Artamonova-Walker Duo – Elena Artanomova, viola, and Nicholas Walker, piano – gave its first performance in April 2005 and since then has explored a fascinating, often undiscovered and diverse repertoire for viola and piano or harpsichord from Marais and Handel to Alexander Grechaninov and Alfred Schnittke. Their concert programmes, with special emphasis on the Russian heritage, have brought to light some little-known viola music by Anton Rubinstein, Sergei Vasilenko, Grigory Frid, Sulkhan Tsintsadze, Georg Kirkor and Sergei Slonimsky. Their CD of the first recording of complete viola works by Sergei Vasilenko on Toccata Classics, the fruit of Elena’s archival investigations, was released in 2011.