Viola à l’école de Paris Diyang Mei & Oliver Triendl

• Bohuslav Martinů (1890 - 1959): Sonata for Viola and Piano, H. 355:
• 1Martinů: Sonata for Viola and Piano, H. 355: I. Poco Andante07:26
• 2Martinů: Sonata for Viola and Piano, H. 355: II. Allegro non troppo08:07
• Alexander Tcherepnin (1899 - 1977): Violin Romance in A Major:
• 3A. Tcherepnin: Violin Romance in A Major (Arr. A. Tcherepnin for Viola and Piano)02:20
• Tibor Harsányi (1898 - 1954): Sonata for Viola and Piano:
• 4Harsányi: Sonata for Viola and Piano: I. Allegro cantabile06:33
• 5Harsányi: Sonata for Viola and Piano: II. Adagio06:04
• 6Harsányi: Sonata for Viola and Piano: III. Allegro giocoso05:33
• Alexandre Tansman (1897 - 1986): Alla Polacca, for Viola and Piano:
• 7Tansman: Alla Polacca, for Viola and Piano01:44
• 8A. Tcherepnin: Elegy, for Violin and Piano, Op. 43 (Arr. A. Tcherepnin for Viola and Piano)04:04
• Marcel Mihalovici (1898 - 1985): Sonata for Violin and Piano, Op. 47:
• 9Mihalovici: Sonata for Violin and Piano, Op. 47: I. Allegro serioso09:36
• 10Mihalovici: Sonata for Violin and Piano, Op. 47: II. Agitato e vehemente06:01
• 11Mihalovici: Sonata for Violin and Piano, Op. 47: III. Andante espressivo07:39
• 12Mihalovici: Sonata for Violin and Piano, Op. 47: IV. Allegro tranquillo06:24
• Total Runtime01:11:31

Info for Viola à l’école de Paris

In the wake of World War I and the October Revolution, countless artists emigrated from Eastern Europe to Paris particularly a number of Russians. They were able to build a reputation by virtue of keen public interest in their art, and sometimes thanks to savvy networking and helpful contacts. This was the case of Alexander Tcherepnin, whose father, a respected composer and conductor, had reaped great success in the first season of the legendary Ballets Russes in 1909.

Alexander Tcherepnin was soon welcomed and adopted by groups of artists such as the École de Paris, a loose gathering of emigrants from several countries that included Bohuslav Martinu and Romanian composer Marcel Mihalovici. Alexander Tcherepnin's two brief pieces featured here, Romance (1922) and Elegy (1929), can only offer a glimpse of this widely traveled composer's cosmopolitan output: he was a man constantly in search of new ideas. Tcherepnin could switch from one musical genre to another in an instant; he eventually even incorporated influences from the Far East. Although the Romance is still entirely under the spell of Late Romanticism, the Elegy is already quasi-Modernist in tone a work revealing a heightened sensitivity for timbre, as we can hear, for instance, in its iridescent violin flageolets.

Approximately the same age as Tcherepnin and successful, like his colleague, as a pianist, Tibor Harsányi arrived in Paris via the Netherlands in 1923... (Excerpt from the liner notes by Johannes Jansen).

Ever since violist Diyang Mei's brilliant success at the 2018 ARD International Music Competition, winning first prize in the viola category, the Audience Prize and several special prizes, he has been steadily furthering his international career. He was awarded first prizes at the 52nd International Instrumental Competition for Viola in Markneukirchen(2017), at the International Max Rostal Music Competition for Viola in Berlin (2015), at the Kulturkreis Gasteig Musikpreis for Strings in Munich (2015), at the IVC Young Artist Competition in Rochester (2012), at the 19th International Johannes Brahms Viola Competition in Austria (2012)and at the 10th International Viola and Cello Competition in Villa de Llanes, Spain (2008). As a soloist, Diyang Mei has performed with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the SWR Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart, the Munich Chamber Orchestra, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, the SWR Festival Schwetzingen, the Schwarzwald Music Festival and the Mozartfest in Würzburg.

Diyang Mei, viola
Oliver Triendl, piano

Diyang Mei
Ever since violist Diyang Mei’s brilliant success at the 2018 ARD International Music Competition, winning first prize in the viola category, the Audience Prize and several special prizes, he has been steadily furthering his international career.

As a soloist, Diyang Mei has performed with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the SWR Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart, the Munich Chamber Orchestra, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, the SWR Festival Schwetzingen, the Schwarzwald Music Festival and the Mozartfest in Würzburg. He has performed with András Schiff, Vadim Gluzman, Günter Pichler, Gerhard Schulz, Ana Chumachenco, Sabine Meyer, Christoph Prégardien und Frans Helmerson among others.

Diyang Mei has held the position of 1st principal viola of the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra since the fall of 2019. In October 2022, he will take up the same position with the Berliner Philharmonic Orchestra.

He was awarded first prizes at the 52nd International Instrumental Competition for Viola in Markneukirchen (2017), at the International Max Rostal Music Competition for Viola in Berlin (2015), at the Kulturkreis Gasteig Musikpreis for Strings in Munich (2015), at the IVC Young Artist Competition in Rochester (2012), at the 19th International Johannes Brahms Viola Competition in Austria (2012) and at the 10th International Viola and Cello Competition in Villa de Llanes, Spain (2008).

His first solo-album “Transforming Viola” was released in 2019. In June 2022, His second album “Viola à L’Ecole de Paris” will be released, to which he is dedicated together with the German-pianist Oliver Triendl.

Diyang Mei has studied with Hariolf Schlichtig at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Munich since 2014 and as of October 2019, will continue his studies with Nobuko Imai at the Kronberg Academy. He is supported by both the Yu Art Foundation in China and the Borletti-Buitoni Trust and is also a Yehudi Menuhin LMN e.V. scholarship holder. He plays a Alessandro Mezzadri viola from 1700, on generous loan by a private collection.

“The instantaneous grip, the electrifying playing style throughout, the logical phrasing, the rhythmic stability, and the staggeringly accurate intonation characterized all of Diyang Mei’s performances.”

Harald Eggebrecht, Süddeutsche Zeitung

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