Jonathan Bagg: Viola Revival: Mid-century works by Marion Bauer, Ulysses Kay & Margaret Bonds

The sonata by Marion Bauer (1882-1955) exists in a sound world spanning consonance and dissonance and uniting the two within a framework of expressiveness: the first movement is designated to be played rubato and the second espressivo. The three movements are all virtually the same length, lending the sonata a feeling of balance that nicely complements its flowing lines, many elements of gentleness, and well-managed balance between instruments. The sonata by Ulysses Kay (1917-1995), which is in four movements but lasts only 10 minutes, is also carefully balanced and even has some of the feeling of a Baroque work through its slow-fast-slow-fast sequence and use of ornamentation. Its harmonic world is decidedly of the 20th century, however, and the focus on the viola points to Kay’s time studying with Hindemith. The 60-second Adagio third movement is in effect an introduction to the finale, the longest movement, which has a pleasantly rocking rhythm and more instrumental interplay than is heard earlier in the work. Troubled Water, the third movement of Spiritual Suite by Margaret Bonds (1913-1972), is here arranged for viola and piano from its cello-and-piano version that Bonds herself created after originally composing the piece for piano solo. Based on the spiritual Wade in the Water, the music flows well throughout, soars with feeling periodically, and never strays far from its underlying foundational melody. Bagg plays all three works with strong emotional commitment and thorough command of the viola’s emotive capabilities, especially when it comes to warmth of both sound and feeling. His two piano accompanists – Emely Phelps in the Bauer and Kay works, Mimi Solomon in the piece by Bonds – back him up skillfully and maintain good balance between strings and keyboard. Despite all the (++++) playing and interesting repertoire, though, this will be a (+++) CD from the perspective of many potential listeners, simply because it is exceptionally short for a full-priced release: just 32½ minutes. Whether its musical quality justifies its economic expectations will be a matter for each individual music lover to determine.

— Mark Estren, 2.26.2026

It seems there’s always more to discover in the annals of 20th-century American music. Violist Jonathan Bagg has dipped into the sea of worthy compositions and fished out some excellent modern/neoclassical music for his instrument and piano. The viola is still somewhat neglected in the repertoire for string soloists, but many composers and violists continue to work to remedy that. With his new album Viola Revival, Bagg makes valuable contributions to our awareness of some worthy viola repertoire – and of some American composers who should be better known.

I first encountered the music of Marion Bauer (1882–1955) on American Virtuosa, an album on which Rachel Barton Pine paid tribute to the now-obscure violinist Maud Powell with a selection of 20th-century American music. Bauer was a highly influential promoter of contemporary American composers in the first part of the century, and a composer of many fine works rarely performed today. Jonathan Bagg puts Bauer’s Sonata for Viola and Piano, Op. 22 (1932) first on his album.

The piece opens with a rich “Allegretto (rubato)” that mingles a deep draught of late Romanticism with flourishes of modernist jaggedness. The fluid, sweet-toned rendition by Bagg and pianist Emely Phelps continues into the second movement, a whispery Andante and sparkly Scherzo in one. Bauer’s flowing melodies shine and a trace of playfulness emerges at the end. The rhythmically insistent, gritty but dance-like main theme of the “Allegro” finale bursts forth with controlled aggression. Unexpectedly a short cadenza and slow section intervene, before the dance returns.

The whole sonata is over in hardly more than 15 minutes but is packed with ideas that suggest more significance than the work did in its time. It’s true Bauer was not exploring the extremes of modernism, but her mastery of a half-century or more of rapid musical development is fully evident here.

Ulysses Kay was studying with Paul Hindemith when he wrote his Sonata for Viola and Piano in 1942. It’s not hard to hear an influence. Hindemith wrote sonatas for many instruments that are not heard so often today, and the same is true of Kay, who was prolific in many genres. In this sonata he underpins his melodies with chromaticism to starkly emotional effect. Bagg and Phelps have clearly devoted plenty of study and love to interpreting the work, and bring out all its merits.

Margaret Bonds has become better known recently thanks to a concerted revival of music by 20th-century Black American composers. It’s a sign, I think, of the success of these efforts that the album has minimal rhetorical focus on the fact that two of the three composers, Kay and Bonds, were African American.

Bonds’ single-movement “Troubled Water” is based on the Negro Spiritual “Wade in the Water.” She composed it originally for solo piano, then created an arrangement for cello and piano, which Bagg has adapted for viola and piano. It forms a lyrical contrast with the Kay sonata and displays in just seven and a half minutes inventive, wide-ranging development of rawly powerful material – indeed an unusually deep fusion of folk music and modern classical technique. The listener can decide whether the “water” here seems truly “troubled.” But Bagg and pianist Mimi Solomon explore it closely, with invigorating results.

— Jon Sobel, 3.24.2026

With Viola Revival, Jonathan Bagg and his collaborators, pianists Emely Phelps and Mimi Solomon, shine a light on three twentieth-century African American composers deserving of greater appreciation, Marion Bauer, Ulysses Kay, and Margaret Bonds. While the latter's Troubled Water is today a staple of the chamber repertoire, the sonatas by the others featured on the release have received less attention and are thus welcome inclusions. Yes, each composer did make significant contributions to the concert music communities of their lifetimes, but death can slowly exile a composer to oblivion unless advocates emerge to champion their works, the violist Bagg one such crusader.

A professor at Duke University and co-Artistic Director (with flutist Laura Gilbert) of Electric Earth Concerts in New Hampshire, Bagg has performed extensively as a member of the Ciompi String Quartet and with the CityMusic Cleveland chamber orchestra. A graduate of the New England Conservatory and Yale, he's released more than twenty recordings with the quartet and issued solo recordings too. An alumnus of Juilliard and Stony Brook University, Phelps, who joins Bagg on the sonatas, has participated regularly in Electric Earth Concerts and appeared as a guest artist with the Borromeo String Quartet, Cassatt Quartet, and A Far Cry. Accompanying the violist on the Bonds piece is Solomon, currently on faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Yale and Juilliard graduate.

Bauer's music is striking for its wedding of established forms and new ideas, something audible in her Sonata for Viola and Piano, Op. 22 when there's classical elegance but strains of dissonance too. Such elements are present from the first moment of the opening “Allegretto (rubato)” when an expansive, yearning theme is darkened with vestiges of atonality. The viola wends a serpentine path through the shadowy material, the piano its haunting chromatic partner. Gently lilting piano patterns set the stage for the viola's entrance in the “Andante espressivo; Scherzo con moto” that follows. The keyboard's delicate handling of the material carries over to the viola until bright animation signals the onset of the scherzo, its pizzicato-sprinkled presentation coy and playful. Animation's even more pronounced in the “Allegro” as a rollicking piano part couples with agitated viola gestures. A brief viola cadenza announces the transition into a romantic middle section before the activity level heats up again for a dramatic conclusion.

Kay, who developed his craft studying composition for a year at Yale with Paul Hindemith, hews to classical design in the slow-fast-slow-fast sequence of his Sonata for Viola and Piano and in its contrapuntal emphasis. To initiate the work, Bagg distinguishes the regal “Largo” with an elegiac, vibrato-sweetened turn, Phelps sensitively responsive to his every move. Vivacious by comparison is the “Allegro,” light on its feet as it attacks its primary theme from multiple angles. A mystery-laden, one-minute “Adagio” anticipates a closing “Allegretto” that's illuminated by the sound of Bagg gliding confidently over a sweeping foundation of tinkling chords and cascades.

Speaking of students, Bonds was one of Florence Price's, who might as easily have appeared on Bagg's release as any of the three chosen. Troubled Water grew out of a solo piano work by Bonds based on the Negro Spiritual “Wade in the Water” that was subsequently arranged for cello and piano but is on this recording delivered by viola and piano. The syncopated piano pattern that introduces the classical-folk setting is infectious, irresistibly so, but so too is the sinuous, blues-infected viola part. Captivating for its seductive soulfulness and subtly cryptic aura, it's easy to understand why it's become so popular for performers and listeners alike.

As each work is a compact affair, with Bauer's and Kay's weighing in at fifteen and ten minutes, respectively, and Bonds' seven, the album comes and goes quickly at thirty-three minutes. There's enough here, however, for a strong case to be made, which Bagg and company do compellingly. Enhancing the recording's impact considerably is the violist's playing, which is attention-commanding throughout. Given the number of other possible composer candidates who could have been selected for the release, it's easy to imagine a follow-up volume assembled along similar lines but with works by a different trio of composers presented.

— Textura, 4.01.2026