Armenian-American violist Kim Kashkashian, one of the major musical voices of ECM New Series, introduces a new duo with Russian-American composer-pianist Lera Auerbach.

Their first recording together features Auerbach’s arrangement for viola and piano of Dmitri Shostakovich’s often playful 24 Preludes Op.34, (which the pair introduced to concert audiences in 2013) and Auerbach’s own, darker, Sonata for viola and piano, ‘Arcanum’.

Lera Auerbach says: “‘Arcanum’ means ‘mysterious knowledge’, and I was fascinated by the inner voice within each of us, some may call it perhaps intuition, some may call it may be guided meditation, but there is some knowledge that we have, which we may not necessarily verbalize or rationalize, but that allows us to see the truth, to be guided, to seek answers.” Auerbach wrote her sonata for Kashkashian: “There is a quality of life-or-death intensity to her performing, which is rare and wonderful.”