Paul Juon - Viola Sonata No. 1, Op. 15 (1901)

Paul Juon (Russian: Па́вел Фёдорович Юо́н, Pavel Fyodorovich Yuon; 6 March 1872 – 21 August 1940) was a Russian-born Swiss composer, pianist and composition professor at Berlin employed by Joseph Joachim. Please support my channel: https://ko-fi.com/bartjebartmans Viola Sonata No. 1 in D major, Op. 15 (1901) I. Moderato (0:00) II. Adagio assai e molto cantabile (7:13) III. Allegro moderato (14:14) Roswitha Killian, viola and Fumiko Shiraga, piano Paul Juon was the son of Swiss parents who emigrated to Moscow where he was born. Educated at the Moscow German High School, he entered the Moscow Conservatory where he studied violin with Jan Hrimaly and composition with Anton Arensky and Sergei Taneyev. After graduating, he went to Berlin for further composition instruction from Woldemar Bargiel (we have published Bargiel's Piano Trio No.1). In 1906, after holding various posts in Russia, Juon was invited by Joseph Joachim head, of the prestigious Berlin Hochschule für Musik, to be a Professor of Composition. It was a post he held until 1934 at which time he moved to Switzerland, where lived for the rest of his life. He is widely regarded as the link between Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky. In his early music, one can hear the influence of his Russian homeland and schooling. Of course, Juon recognized that though he had been born in Russia and schooled there, he was a still foreigner living among Russians. His second period is more cosmopolitan and is in tune with the contemporary Central European trends of the early 20th century. Ultimately, it is hard to characterize his music as Russian or German, Romantic, Modern or Folkloric, because one can find all of these elements in his music. During his lifetime, Juon was widely regarded as an important composer and his works were given frequent performance throughout Europe. Chamber music plays a large part of his total output which numbers more than 100 works.