Confession: Why I love the … viola
Album Of The WeekFrom the Lebrecht Album of the Week:
I was never a fan of viola jokes.
Just because the instrument is neither one thing nor the other doesn’t make it any funnier than a mezzo-soprano or a bass-baritone. It is what it is, with benefits. The viola spares you squeaky irritations of a violin and lugubrious growls of a mishandled cello.
I like the viola. There, I’ve said it.
What’s special about this release …
Read on here.
En francais ici.
In The Critic here.
I like the viola too. I just like joking about it much more….
Your viola jokes are a stream of unconsciousness rooted in viola envy.
The only type of envy that can be associated with Viola is that it provides more fire wood than violin in the time of absolute need…
Fred needs heat in his cave.
The Bax Viola Sonata was written for Lionel Tertis, whose autobiography (“My Viola and I”) is well worth reading for its look at British music making circa 1900 to 1950, and especially for those who love exploring viola repertoire because there is so much music that Tertis helped bring forth that is yet to be played very much. He talks about some of those pieces in some detail.
Tertis and Bax recorded the work but in the common manner of that time, the piano sound is undernourished. Given the sonic wizardry now available to us I suspect someone could “do something” about that problem, but I suppose the purists would pounce, no matter how sensitively the recovery work was done.
Fortunately, the Bax Viola Sonata is — at least by viola standards — just about standard repertoire, while the Bax violin sonatas (there are three numbered, plus a student work), because they are less “needed” perhaps, tend to languish as specialty interests, although good recordings exist.
One can, in my opinion, appreciate viola jokes while still loving the instrument and its repertoire dearly. I have noticed over the years that some of the most biting viola jokes exist in alternate versions making fun of certified public accountants or insurance actuaries. An accountant with actuarial training who also plays the viola needs a stiff upper lip and the hide of a crocodile.
The viola is a fantastic instrument in its own right, of course.
It is its placing in the symphony orchestra in the ‘middle ground’ that has contributed to its relative neglect.
But without the viola, the sound of the string group in the orchestra, and of the string trio and string quartet, would suddenly be disembodied.
The grandest joke on violists was played by Hector Berlioz with “Harold in Italy.” As William Primrose wrote in his memoirs: “I was engaged to play ‘Harold in Italy”….more often than I care to recall. Perhaps [its] most important demand…is as a Thespian: the ability to stand, as in the last movement, looking handsome and urbane without in any way being vulgarly obtrusive…”
Jordan Bak is a terrific violist. And that’s no joke.
The wonderful Scottish Mairi Campbell, from Portobello, Edinburgh, who’s a wonderfully talented viola player! She’s a songwriter, with her husband, Dave Francis, and with him, has written some absolute gems of songs! Good on you, Mairi and Dave! In 2019, Mairi was inducted into folk music champion, Simon Thoumire’s hall of fame…. congratulations, Mairi! Mairi also plays fiddle, and the keys! Plus, she’s a much-loved singer…. accompanied by Dave, on guitar, as The Cast! Take care, Mairi, see you on the 5th of May, for your really cool new show, with your good friend, Marion, Journey To The Isles, about epic song collector, and folklorist, Marjory Kennedy-Fraser! All the best, Mairi! Much love, Vicky :-)) Xxxx
some people just don’t have to come out