{"id":2683,"date":"2009-06-12T16:52:07","date_gmt":"2009-06-12T23:52:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/?p=2683"},"modified":"2013-02-07T19:46:31","modified_gmt":"2013-02-08T03:46:31","slug":"doldrums","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/06\/12\/doldrums\/","title":{"rendered":"doldrums"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s that time of the year.\u00c2\u00a0 The orchestra’s season is over (and so are the paychecks).\u00c2\u00a0 I teach at the Max Aronoff Viola Institute<\/a>, a string camp that takes place at the end of June each year in Kenmore, a suburb of Seattle\/Bellevue.\u00c2\u00a0 I always seem to choose repertoire that demands a lot of practice to either learn in the first place, or just get back up to speed from the last performance.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s so difficult to commit to that work at this time of the year.\u00c2\u00a0 The weather is nice, there are lots of outdoor activities that beckon.\u00c2\u00a0 Energy and motivation are at a low ebb at the end of the season, and piling on a lot of new work doesn’t add to the fun.<\/p>\n

This year I’m doing one new piece and two retreads.\u00c2\u00a0 The new piece is a doozy – Paganini’s La Campanella<\/em>, arranged for viola and piano by William Primrose.\u00c2\u00a0 Here’s a video of it being performed by former Philadelphia Orchestra and Berlin Philharmonic violist Carrie Dennis<\/a> (now principal viola of the LA Philharmonic):<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

It’s good to push my technique as I get older, otherwise ossification begins to set in…<\/p>\n

The two retreads are no less demanding in their own way, but at least I’ve performed them in public before.<\/p>\n

The first is a solo piece by Kryzstof Penderecki, his Cadenza for Solo Viola<\/em>, which is essentially a distillation of his awesome Viola Concerto into its essential elements.\u00c2\u00a0 I love playing this piece – it’s very dramatic and emotional.<\/p>\n

The final work is the Trio for Clarinet (or viola), Cello and Piano by Johannes Brahms.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s one of his greatest chamber works, written right before the two clarinet (or viola) sonatas at the end of his life.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s also a giant pain to play, since it wasn’t written with the viola in mind.\u00c2\u00a0 Therefore it climbs into the upper registers much more often than his usual viola parts.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s such glorious music, though, that it really isn’t worth complaining about without seeming petty.<\/p>\n

Here’s a video of the sublime second movement, with viola in place of clarinet:<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

And if you’re interested in the fine violist in this video (Travis Maril), you can read more about him here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s that time of the year.\u00c2\u00a0 The orchestra’s season is over (and so are the paychecks).\u00c2\u00a0 I teach at the Max Aronoff Viola Institute, a string camp that takes place at the end of June each year in Kenmore, a suburb of Seattle\/Bellevue.\u00c2\u00a0 I always seem to choose repertoire that demands a lot of practice […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[115,135,138,22],"tags":[439],"class_list":["post-2683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","category-soloists-recitals","category-summer-festivals","category-viola","tag-brahms"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/sa8kC-doldrums","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2744,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/06\/22\/oregon-symphony-in-the-news\/","url_meta":{"origin":2683,"position":0},"title":"oregon symphony in the news","author":"Charles Noble","date":"June 22, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"There have been several articles in the local press about the current Oregon Symphony financial situation: High\/low times for the Oregon Symphony [David Stabler\/Oregonian] The Oregon Symphony cuts back [David Stabler\/Oregonian\/video] Arts groups in a fiscal thicket [Bob Hicks\/ArtScatter.com] Since we're about to enter into negotiations between musicians and management,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "fundraising"","block_context":{"text":"fundraising","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/fundraising\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"noble_sig.jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/02\/noble_sig.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":594,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/12\/17\/paradise-except-for-no-paycheck\/","url_meta":{"origin":2683,"position":1},"title":"paradise except for no paycheck","author":"Charles Noble","date":"December 17, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The Honolulu Symphony apparently can't make its $60,000 payroll until after the New Year.\u00c2\u00a0 Read more here.","rel":"","context":"In "music"","block_context":{"text":"music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1129,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/09\/15\/viola-viola\/","url_meta":{"origin":2683,"position":2},"title":"viola, viola","author":"Charles Noble","date":"September 15, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Tonight I just finished a rehearsal with my longtime friend and stand partner, OSO principal violist Jo\u00ebl Belgique, of George Benjamin's 1997 work for two violas, Viola, viola. It's our second time through, and I'm reminded of an aphorism often cited by our pianist friend Cary Lewis, namely that no\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "contemporary"","block_context":{"text":"contemporary","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/contemporary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/09\/gb_vlavla_sm-400x249.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":14980,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2018\/11\/05\/viola-monday-11-5-18\/","url_meta":{"origin":2683,"position":3},"title":"viola monday 11\/5\/18","author":"Charles Noble","date":"November 5, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I've decided to start a regular column on Mondays that deals just with the viola. The viola is, of course, my chosen instrument (although I think that's not quite correct\u2013I think it chose me), and there are a lot of cool and not so well-known things about it that you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "viola"","block_context":{"text":"viola","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/instruments\/viola\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21209,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2021\/04\/01\/viola-for-holy-week\/","url_meta":{"origin":2683,"position":4},"title":"viola for holy week","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 1, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Last spring, the Oregon Symphony presented a series of video productions that were a brainchild of the OSO's Creative Chair Gabriel Kahane and director Holcombe Waller. My contribution was Nico Muhly's Keep in Touch, for viola and electronics. It's apt that that video is being re-run this week - Holy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "new music"","block_context":{"text":"new music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/new-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/etJ6vVUBA0Y\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2771,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/06\/25\/oy-paganini\/","url_meta":{"origin":2683,"position":5},"title":"oy, paganini!","author":"Charles Noble","date":"June 25, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Just had my first hack-through of the La Campanella with my wonderful pianist (Sandra Bleiweiss).\u00c2\u00a0 What a shock the first run-through often can be!\u00c2\u00a0 Carefully thought-out interpretive decisions seem unbelievably stupid and inane.\u00c2\u00a0 Tempos seem either naive or hideously self-conscious.\u00c2\u00a0 Mainly, after the run-through of the Paganini, my thought was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "chamber music"","block_context":{"text":"chamber music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/chamber-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Photo 14","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/Photo-14-400x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2683\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}