To the Maxim-um

I've really enjoyed this year's City of London Festival.  Not only has the lineup included several terrific performers, but many of the concerts have been held in venues I rarely get to see: Henning Kraggerud at Mansion House, the Choir of King's College, Cambridge at Southwark Cathedral, and most recently Maxim Rysanov and his pianist, Evgeny Samoyloff, at St Margaret Lothbury.
If pressed, I'd probably finger Rysanov as my violist of choice these days.  He has a wonderful tone, exhibits thoughtful phrasing, and plays the viola like a viola, not a big violin.  It just so happened that St Margaret's provided an almost perfect acoustic for Rysanov's instrument, which meant that every note played had a beautiful richness to it that was wholly captivating.  I'd have listened to him play Kreutzer 2 for an hour and have pleased.  The fact that he didn't, and instead performed Prokofiev's Death of Juliet, Shostakovich's viola sonata, and a transcription of Bach's G major cello suite was, quite frankly, gravy. 
Rysanov plays the cello suite transcriptions fairly often, and with good reason.  While the pieces occasionally fall short in the low end, they're still wonderfully moving, and I think better suited on the whole to the viola than are the transcriptions of the sonatas and partitas for solo violin.  At any rate, Rysanov played the suite wonderfully, and created an impressive variety of moods that, along with the heft of the work itself, struck a nice balance with the Shostakovich sonata to come. 
All that stood between the two pieces was Prokofiev's short Death of Juliet, which sounded so perfect on the viola that it could have been composed for that instrument.  Rysanov made full use of the viola's expressive range, alternating as he did between menace and tenderness for the duration of the piece.  The final bars' haunting march was positively frightening, particularly the way it drifted off into distant harmonics: a death march spirited away on the winds.
A hint of this tragedy could be detected at the start of Shostakovich's sonata for viola and piano.  Rysanov's gentle pizzicato lured me right in, and before I knew it I was in a dangerous maze, ducking for cover and hiding in the bushes.  Time isn't on my side in writing these remarks, so rather than elaborate on an extremely intricate performance, I'll simply say it's unlikely to leave my consciousness anytime soon and direct you to this page, where you'll be able to hear a recording of the concert between the 21st and 28th of July.  Buckle up!