“A tribute to inwardness, patience and beauty.” This is how the Danish composer Poul Ruders (b. 1949) described his Viola Concerto from 1994. The music has an almost Late Romantic expressive style and is played with rich, many-faceted feeling by the Norwegian viola virtuoso Lars Anders Tomter. In his Handel Variations (2009) Poul Ruders has composed no fewer than 90 variations on eight bars from Handel’s Water Music. The short variations grow together into a symphonic totality where the orchestral colours are constantly shifting and where Handel’s starting point develops into pure Ruders.

Ruders’ Viola Concerto was premiered at the BBC Proms in 1995, whereafter he rewrote the piece. This recording contains the revised 2013 version. The Viola Concerto is a piece devoted to the right and ability of music to stay aloof, maintaining its emotional integrity, detached from the tyranny of fashion and trend.