On Nov 16, 2005, at 8:22 AM, Darcy James Argue wrote:
Just curious what everyone considers the best/most important works for
viola in the past hundred years or so.
- Darcy
My knowledge is a little out of date, but in more-or-less chronological
order:
Brahms wrote some sonatas in the 1890's I think, though originally for
clarinet they are probably played more on viola, and are very nice.
Maybe a little outside the 100 years criterion.
I see a lot of Paganini on viola recitals, but I don't know whether
those works were originally written for violin. There are a lot of
transcriptions for viola; I just don't know whether these are or not.
Walton's viola concerto is the biggie.
Bartok's concerto
Hindemith wrote a bunch of stuff that is really nice for viola, and he
was a violist himself, but I don't know whether it can be considered
important. Maybe anything written by an "important" composer is
important. I would have considered his trumpet and trombone sonatas to
be important, but then, I AM a trombonist, so I might be alone with all
my buddies in thinking that...
Dvorak ditto.
Milhaud wrote a whole bunch of stuff, concertos and the like. I'm not a
big fan, but I think the sheer volume of material would qualify him as
"important."
Rebecca Clarke was talked about among my violist friends, but I don't
know any of her works. I got the impression she was pretty important as
a player and general advocate for viola in addition to being a
composer, opening doors and the like.
Berio wrote a Sequenza for viola, and though I don't know it, if it is
anything along the lines of his other Sequenzas, it must be a work of
genius (can you tell I'm biased?)
I have a big hole in my repertoire (not just for viola, but overall!)
since about 20 years, but I am sure others can fill in the gaps.
Christopher
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