Knox's own Fuga libre for solo viola is a skillful and timbrally colorful virtuoso tour de force. Kaija Saariaho's Vent nocturne for viola and electronics, which she wrote for Knox, is a mysterious, subtly shaded evocation of the sounds of the night.

The English lute songs make an especially seamless transition to this instrumentation, and Dowland's Flow my Tears is wonderfully effective and affecting, a highlight of the album. For the songs by Purcell and Dowland, one of the folk songs, and the Vivaldi Concerto in D minor, he uses viola d'amore and cello the instruments sound gorgeous together, and he treats them as equal partners, interweaving the roles of solo and accompaniment. Knox made the arrangements of the folk material and of the Baroque pieces. Besides viola d'amore, he plays modern viola and folk fiddle. On his first album he was joined by cellist Agns Vesterman, who returns here, along with percussionist Sylvain Lemtre. Saltarello is very much a companion album to Irish violist Garth Knox's first solo recital for ECM, D'Amore, released in 2008 - a richly diverse collection of works for viola d'amore featuring Contemporary and Baroque repertoire as well as music from folk traditions - periods and styles that are also represented on the new album, as well as Medieval vocal and instrumental pieces.

The gifted musicians create rich dusky tones on this highly invigorating recital. Knox is joined by frequent collaborators, Agnes Vesterman and Sylvain Lemetre. The album finds Knox surveying various musical events from the past 1,000 years from the likes of acclaimed composers including Hildegard von Bingen, Vivaldi and Guillaume de Machaut. On this brilliant recording, renowned viola player Garth Knox couples works stretching from the 12th century to present day.

Gonzales solo piano 2012 rar