Peter Mallinson on exploring the surprisingly fertile floor of music for 2 violas with fellow viola participant Matthias Wiesner

Matthias Wiesner, Lynn Arnold & Peter Mallinson recording Two Violas: Regeneration at St Peter’s Church, Boughton Monchelsea, Kent in 2024

Viola gamers Peter Mallinson and Matthias Wiesner have been exploring the maybe stunning but remarkably fertile floor of music for 2 violas (each with and with out keyboard). In March, they launch their fourth disc, Two Violas: Regeneration on the Meridian label with pianist Lynn Arnold, options preparations of Bach and Elgar, authentic works by York Bowen, Alexander Wunderer and Orlando Gibbons, alongside new items by Sally Beamish (herself a viola participant, see my 2019 interview), Detlev Glanert, Raymond Yiu and Peter Letanka.

Peter explains that after they began exploring this repertoire, there have been just a few items that ‘floated their boat’ however they didn’t realise fairly how a lot materials there was, and that it was good to have the ability to showcase works that had been excess of merely attention-grabbing fillers. In addition they started commissioning items and preparations of current materials. Peter factors out that many locations, live performance societies, must have works within the programme by composers that folks have heard of. In any case, the line-up of two violas (with or with out piano) is just not an apparent one. Should you say string quartet, individuals have a transparent thought of the music, so having names individuals recognise is useful. And Peter feels that they’re nowhere close to operating out of repertoire.

The brand new disc’s theme is the free certainly one of Regeneration. All their discs have had a theme, however Peter admits that themes come second, repertoire comes first. For him, it’s attention-grabbing discovering alternative ways of grouping items collectively and such groupings might help individuals to consider the music in new methods. Every of the items on the brand new disc entails regeneration of 1 kind or one other, although Peter admits that it’s a high quality line between inspiration and regeneration.

The Bach piece on the disc, Peter admits, is a little bit of an oddity, taking part in with the truth that Baroque composers would typically reimagine works with completely different combos of devices, so Iain Farrington has reimagined certainly one of Bach’s Viola da Gamba Sonatas for 2 violas and piano. Additionally within the combine is the concept Bach’s gamba sonatas are themselves reimaginings of earlier works, and one exists in a model for flute and keyboard.

For his or her earlier disc, A Story of Two Violas [see my review], Peter and Matthias requested Iain Farrington to provide a model of Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 (the one which options violas with out violins) making it extra like a trio sonata than two violas with keyboard discount of the remaining instrumental components. So now, Farrington has labored his magic on Bach’s Viola da Gamba Sonata in G minor, BWV 1029, creating an up to date model of one thing from the previous.

The Duo in G Main by York Bowen (1884-1961) and Duett in G by Alexander Wunderer (1877-1955) have not likely seen the sunshine of day a lot not too long ago, and Peter feels that it is very important convey them to the fore. Peter first examine Alexander Wunderer in a guide concerning the nice English viola participant, Lionel Tertis (1876-1975). Peter likes Wunderer’s music, discovering it stuffed with character and well-written for the viola (Wunderer was an oboist, and orchestral supervisor of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra). His Duett goes down properly with audiences, notably the spooky second motion.

Early Music, Peter admits, could be one thing of a minefield in terms of this repertoire. What’s an association in any case? Merely taking part in the identical music on a special instrument? Viola gamers typically carry out Bach’s Cello Suites, taking part in the identical notes an octave larger, profiting from the truth that a viola’s strings sound precisely an octave above these of the cello. Peter factors out that within the Early Music, scores typically didn’t specify the actual devices required.

Late 18th and Nineteenth-century repertoire for 2 violas is more durable to seek out, but it does exist. One identify Peter mentions in our dialogue is the Czech violinist and composer Anton Wranitzky (1761-1820). His academics included Mozart, although Anton’s brother Pavel is probably higher identified, however Anton Wranitzky’s output features a concerto for 2 violas. However a pair of violas collectively has its personal specific sound and composers of the interval exploit this when writing string quintets with two violas (as did Mozart and Beethoven) relatively than two cellos. Not strictly two viola repertoire, but it surely exhibits the composers’ delicate curiosity, and Peter opines that Beethoven’s quintets are nice enjoyable.

One downside, nevertheless, is that numerous the repertoire is just not revealed, or in some circumstances is lengthy out of print, reliant on getting maintain of the music by way of connections. Additionally, which means you might need a duplicate of the music however not have the rights to it. Alexander Wunderer’s Viola Sonata is revealed however not his Duett, and Peter feels that it will be great if the Duett may very well be revealed. Peter solely found the Duett as a result of it was listed in a recital by viola gamers William Primrose (1904-1982) and Paul Doktor (1919-1989), and Doktor left his music assortment to a contact of Peter’s. Composer James Friskin (1886-1967), husband of viola participant and composer Rebecca Clarke (1886-1976), wrote an Elegy for Viola that was revealed but nearly disappeared. When Peter contacted the work’s publishers their grasp copy had unaccountably vanished.

Peter’s duo with Matthias began for very extraordinary causes. Each males joined the BBC Symphony Orchestra on the identical day in 2012. On a tour to South Korea, the training division wanted gamers and for logistical causes, it needed to be those that carried their devices with them. Peter and Matthias volunteered and carried out a chunk for 2 violas. They discovered they loved it and thought it enjoyable to do concert events collectively as a distinction to their orchestral life, with new music and unfamiliar repertoire. So that they checked out current repertoire for 2 violas. There have been items with connections to the BBC Symphony Orchestra, such because the Sonatina by Gordon Jacob (1895-1984) which was devoted to 2 BBC Symphony Orchestra gamers. They began trying additional with connections to different viola gamers, Lionel Tertis, Vadim Borisovsky (1900-1972), viola participant within the Beethoven Quartet which premiered 13 of Shostakovich’s string quartets, and Fyodor Druzhinin (1932-2007) who changed Borisovsky within the Beethoven Quartet, and for whom Shostakovich wrote his Viola Sonata. Then at concert events, they’d be requested how individuals might discover out extra about this repertoire, however there was no single place to look. The query ‘what if’ led to their first disc, Music for Two Violas.

Matthias Wiesner, Detlev Glanert, Peter Mallinson

The extra they do, the extra up to date composers have an interest. Generally composers hear them performing and supply items, while different composers, Peter and Matthias have requested for items, some with connections to the present BBC Symphony Orchestra resembling Detlev Glanert.

The orchestra with conductor Semyon Bychkov gave the UK premiere of Glanert’s Weites Land (‘Musik mit Brahms’ for orchestra) on the 2019 BBC Proms and returned to the work, with conductor Joel Sandelson in 2023, and likewise in 2023, Bychkov performed the BBC SO within the UK premiere of Glanert’s Prague Symphony – Lyrical Fragments after Franz Kafka, a BBC co-commission [see Colin Clarke’s review on Seen and Heard]

Peter and Matthias, with pianist Lynn Arnold might be launching the brand new disc at a live performance on 14 March 2025 at All Saints’ Church, Jesus Lane, Cambridge, CB5 8BP, when they are going to be taking part in a choice of items from the disc. And there might be a chance to satisfy the musicians afterwards.

Full particulars from the TryBooking web site.

Peter Mallinson and Matthias Wiesner’s Two Violas discography on Meridian Data

Music for Two Violas CDDE84641

• Gordon Jacob: Sonatina
• Fyodor Druzhinin: Sinfonia a Due
• Edmund Rubbra: Meditations on a Byzantine Hymn
• Frank Bridge: i
• Preparations of Prokofiev, Pyotr Bulakhov and Khachaturian by Vadim Borisovsky

A Story of Two Violas CDE84652

• John Hawkins: At Two
• Lionel Tertis: Variations on a Passacaglia by Handel
• Preparations of Schubert & Dowland by Tertis; preparations of G.B.Vitalia and Bedrich Benda by Borisovsky; Frank Bridge edited and accomplished by Simon Rowland-Jones
• Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 organized by Iain Farrington

Two Violas Now CDE84667

• music by Deborah Pritchard, Edwin Roxburgh, Simon Rowland-Jones, John Alexander

Two Violas: Regeneration CDE 84684

• Bach, arr. Iain Farrington: Sonata in G minor BWV 1029
• Sally Beamish: Prelude & Canon
• Orlando Gibbons: Two Fantasias
• Detlev Glanert: The Pleiades
• Raymond Yiu: Three Shidaiqu Transcriptions
• York Bowen: Duo in G main
• Alexander Wunderer: Duett in Gamba
• Peter Letanka: Gershwinian Nostalgia
• Edward Elgar, arr. Dan Jenkins: The Wild Bears