Melodie was originally written for Violin and Piano in 1878 as the third of the three Memories that made up the composer’s opus 47. It was dedicated to Brailovo the Ukrainian Country estate where it was finished. Since then it has been re-arranged many times most famously for Violin with Orchestra. This arrangement for Viola and Piano by Alan Arnold is part of the popular Viola World series. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840 - 1893) is one of the best-known Russian composers in the west. He was the first Russian composer to write in the European style generating criticism from his peers for abandoning the Russian culturalheritage but enjoying acclaim across both Europe and America.

Tchaikovsky Serenade Melancholique for viola and piano transcribed by Alan Arnold.

Shostakovich's last work the Sonata For Viola And Piano Op.147 is a superbly crafted Sonata in three movements with unusually a slow Adagio movement for the third. It was dedicated to the violist Fyodor Druzhinin a professor of the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory and a member of the Beethoven String Quartet a renowned Moscow ensemble that played at the premieres of most of Shostakovich’s string quartets. Fyodor Druzhinin and Mikhail Muntyan premiered the Viola Sonata in Leningrad on October 1 1975.The solo Viola part is also included on a separate insert.