Poem for viola & piano

• Date: 1928
• Composer: Zara Levina
• Period: Modern (1910-1949)

Review

This is a beautiful and pensive viola solo work that should be considered when a need arises for a brief, romantic, and soulful addition to a viola program.

Zara Levina (1906 - 1976) was born in Simferopol, in the Crimean Tatar region. She entered Odessa Conservatory as a piano student at a young age and graduated with full honors at the age of 17. She went on for further studies at the Moscow Conservatory in 1925, graduating in 1931. She became known mostly for her songs and romances, and for children's music. For a few years, until 1947, she was head of the Children's Music Committee of the Composers' Union of the U.S.S.R.

Commentators say that her relatively small output of instrumental chamber music consists mostly of pieces associated with private emotional concerns. This four-minute song without words consists of a flowing, very lyrical, singing line for the viola over a rich, Romantic, and highly pianistic accompaniment. Its piano style is a clear descendant of that of Aleksandr Scriabin, though its harmonies are not the radical "quartal harmonies" -- i.e., built on intervals of the fourth rather than the standard thirds -- pioneered by Scriabin. Still, the music is tonally restless, and is moved by dissonances not unlike those used in middle-period Scriabin during most of the Poem, giving the work the sense of seeking for something dear that has been lost.

Near the end of the work the harmonies grow more satisfied and less stressed, and the poem ends in a luminous texture. ~ Joseph Stevenson, Rovi

Albums with Complete Performances of the Work

Title	Date
Nina Makarova: Symphony in D minor; Zara Levina: Piano Concerto No. 2

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