"Romantic expression", Maxim Rysanov says, is the thread, the theme, that connects and unites the half-dozen works for those most romantically expressive of instruments, the viola and piano, on this recording. Stretching across the best part of the two centuries, each and all of the compositions situates itself within (and seeks to reflect) a particular romantic- and, in some instances, romanticised - experience and perspective. Cumulatively, they present a series of fractured, often fervent, always heartfelt portraits of that most complex but compelling of emotions : romantic feeling.