{"id":998,"date":"2008-05-31T22:42:10","date_gmt":"2008-06-01T05:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/?p=998"},"modified":"2013-02-07T18:57:43","modified_gmt":"2013-02-08T02:57:43","slug":"shostakovichs-viola-sonata-redux","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/05\/31\/shostakovichs-viola-sonata-redux\/","title":{"rendered":"shostakovich’s viola sonata, redux"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zach Carstensen (who writes for the excellent NW music blog collective The Gathering Note<\/a>) posted the following comment<\/a> to my first post<\/a> on Shostakovich’s Viola Sonata:<\/p>\n

I suppose it is well known that Shostakovich\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s failing health made the sonata one of the composers sparsest works of music. Yet, I have always thought the piece reminds me of some of Webern\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s chamber compositions\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6I posed the following question to a violist up here in Seattle:<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The sonata seems almost like its crosswise with itself. On the one hand Shostakovich describes it as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153clear\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153brilliant,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d yet on the other it does have a mournful air around it. The piece\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s resignation is almost to be expected since it was his last work. Similarly, the sonata is incredibly sparse, with what seem like allusions to Berg and Webern, but also incredibly complicated and dense in parts. Is it possible to reconcile all of these differences?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I was talking to my pianist this evening after we’d rehearsed the sonata, and I expressed the wish that Shostakovich was still alive – and that I’d have some serious questions to ask him about many aspects of his life and music. But Cary responded that a straightforward answer might not be possible to get, considering the life that Shostakovich lived, where speaking one’s mind clearly and directly was very possibly fatal.<\/p>\n

I read recently that Shostakovich died of Lou Gherigh’s Disease (ALS), which would make sense, as it literally would have been painful to write a dense manuscript. My quartet played his 15th quartet a few years ago, and it was similarly sparse, full of contradictions, and funereal in character. While he said it should be played “clear” and “brilliant”, I’m sure that’s not what he really meant – I don’t think he’d ever have brought himself to say it to anyone, or even admit it to himself, what the piece really was, a “leave-taking” akin to Mahler’s Ninth, but distilled to its essence, as you say, \u00c3\u00a1 la Webern.<\/p>\n

Then, the last question you pose is the question which dogs any musician worth their salt, which is how you make a credible interpretation of a piece which defies it at almost every turn. And the best pieces, those indisputable masterpieces, make that struggle worth coming back to again and again, through a lifetime of making music. The Viola Sonata is a prime example of such a work, to my mind, and belongs in the pantheon with works of Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, and other masters throughout the ages whose music constantly stimulates and challenges us.<\/p>\n

As for interpretation, it’s easy to go overboard with this piece, and to ignore the tempo markings which are presumably Shostakovich’s (though I’m going to do some checking on that), and to create lots of internal tempo fluctuations. Ultimately, if you are faithful to what Shostakovich writes in his score (correcting a few misprints along the way) and keep to a middle path, neither playing it cold nor giving in to the heat except at the very peaks of the climaxes, it’s possible to make a great performance of this piece (but hardly easy).<\/p>\n

I heard, through my last teacher, Roberto D\u00c3\u00acaz, of a maxim that one of his teachers, Burton Fine, used to say about the Viola Sonata: “There are two ways to play the Shostakovich Viola Sonata: one leaves the audience without a dry eye in the house. The other leaves not an OPEN eye in the house”. Typical dry, wry wit of the then long-time principal violist of the Boston Symphony.<\/p>\n

We’ll see how it goes on Sunday…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Zach Carstensen (who writes for the excellent NW music blog collective The Gathering Note) posted the following comment to my first post on Shostakovich’s Viola Sonata: I suppose it is well known that Shostakovich\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s failing health made the sonata one of the composers sparsest works of music. Yet, I have always thought the piece reminds […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_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},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[148,115,135],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appreciations","category-music","category-soloists-recitals"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-g6","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":997,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/05\/29\/shostakovich-and-his-viola-sonata\/","url_meta":{"origin":998,"position":0},"title":"shostakovich and his viola sonata","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 29, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm playing the Shostakovich Viola Sonata Op. 147 on Sunday afternoon, and I've been searching various printed volumes and the internet for more information about its genesis and about Shostakovich's life in general. I stumbled upon the following, a letter written by the then president of the Soviet Composers' Union,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"shost1975.jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/05\/shost1975.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12981,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2013\/09\/15\/20-years-since-aldeburgh\/","url_meta":{"origin":998,"position":1},"title":"20 years since Aldeburgh","author":"Charles Noble","date":"September 15, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I was looking at my part to Hindemith's Der Schwanendreher (a concerto for viola and orchestra) when I noticed the inscription I'd written at the top of the viola part (I have this habit of writing dates\/places of performances of pieces at the top of the part). It was nearly\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "viola"","block_context":{"text":"viola","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/instruments\/viola\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/9765952635_652b003e66_o.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/9765952635_652b003e66_o.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/9765952635_652b003e66_o.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/9765952635_652b003e66_o.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/9765952635_652b003e66_o.jpg?resize=1050%2C600 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/9765952635_652b003e66_o.jpg?resize=1400%2C800 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":422,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/08\/24\/back-to-school-quiz\/","url_meta":{"origin":998,"position":2},"title":"back to school quiz","author":"Charles Noble","date":"August 24, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Soho the Dog has posted his back to school classical music quiz, which I'll reproduce here (and give my own answers).\u00c2\u00a0 Remember, there's no such thing as a dumb answer, just a dumb person! 1. What's the best quotation of a piece of music within another piece of music? Beethoven's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5141,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/08\/06\/for-a-good-time-call-brahms\/","url_meta":{"origin":998,"position":3},"title":"for a good time, call brahms","author":"Charles Noble","date":"August 6, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I had the best time this morning.\u00a0 By this time of the summer, I've usually frittered away a large portion of my free time on the bike or in front of the tv watching the pros ride their bikes.\u00a0 The viola gets put away in the studio and gets to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/41Slgj2sgZL._SL160_.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":43,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2006\/06\/12\/gyorgy-ligeti-1923-2006\/","url_meta":{"origin":998,"position":4},"title":"Gyorgy Ligeti (1923-2006)","author":"Charles Noble","date":"June 12, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"A great loss to the music world - and especially violists, for whom he wrote his herculean masterpiece, the Solo Viola Sonata. nytimes link","rel":"","context":"In \"News\"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/tag\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12668,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2013\/05\/28\/things-heard-discovered-part-i\/","url_meta":{"origin":998,"position":5},"title":"things heard & discovered – part I","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 28, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I don't normally do a lot of listening to recorded music, with the exception that I often use recordings as a way to prepare for upcoming performances. 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