45th International Viola Congress 2018

Program:

1) Gillian Ansell & Atar Arad:
two viola duo's by Atar Arad, including a short introduction by the composer.
- Toccatina a la Turk (4')
- “Esther”  (7')

2) Made in Switzerland
Viacheslav Dinerchtein, viola;  Noriko Yabe, piano
- Fabian Müller (*1964): 'Lento' and 'Tempo di Gavotta'  from the Suite for viola and piano (6 min)
- Heinz Holliger (*1939): Souvenirs Tremaesques for viola solo (2 min) 
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778): 'Rondo' from Le Devin du village (arr. V. Dinerchtein) (2 min)
- Frank Martin (1890 – 1974):  Ballade for viola and piano (15 min)
Program notes below.

3) Berlioz and Paganini: Viola adventures of two great composers
Mikhail Zemtsov, viola; Hannah Shybaeva, piano; Lecture-recital.
- Short exposition and fragments of Berlioz' Harold in Italy in new viola/piano arrangement.
- Niccolò Paganini: Sonata per la Gran Viola, with cadenzas by Mikhail Kugel


Program Notes

Made in Switzerland:
This is an unusual compilation of music for viola and piano written by renown Swiss composers and personalities. To my knowledge, such a program has never been researched or put together before, let alone presented in public. It features music covering a span of 250 years – both original and adapted to viola - that is mostly unknown, even to the well-informed in the field.

The program starts with Fabian Müller, one of the foremost Swiss composers, recipient of the highest musical award in Switzerland. In addition to his prolific activity as a composer, he assembled a huge anthology of Swiss Folk music (10 volumes with over 10000 melodies), some of them to be arranged for viola and piano. As they are not yet available yet, two movements from his Viola Suite are performed.

We continue with a short experimental piece, recently written for solo viola by the oboe virtuoso, noted composer and conductor Heinz Holliger.

The program also features a short piece by Jean-Jacques Rousseau from his one-act opera Le Devin du village, re-worked into a viola-piano version. This music, now forgotten, actually brought Rousseau fame as a composer (it was even played at the wedding of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette).

I conclude with a cello work that sounds particularly well on viola, and could (or even should) have a place in our repertoire: The "Ballade" by Frank Martin (who, incidentally, lived for many years and died in Naarden, Netherlands). The arrangements are my own.

Berlioz and Paganini:
Every viola player probably knows why and how these two pieces are linked together – the story of Paganini commissioning a virtuoso viola concerto by his friend Hector Berlioz.  Paganini’s great irritation after seeing the viola part of Harold in Italy (which he considered to be too simplistic for him, aside from the unbearably long silences), triggered the composition of the Sonata per la Gran Viola.

This unique story is not the only factor that makes this programme especially attractive for the broad public; the background of ‘Harold in Italy’ was based on real life experiences. These are described in Berlioz’s ‘’Memoires”,  which I will present with brief quotations and fragment demonstrations.
Last but not least - the astonishing musical quality of both pieces, a phenomenal piano transcription of Harold by Liszt, and  sparkling virtuosity of the Sonata, highlight the virtues and diversity of our instrument.