Violas In Concert ,classical V 1 - Viola

Formerly titled Ensembles for Viola Volume 3, Violas in Concert is a collection of viola ensembles arranged and composed by Elizabeth Stuen-Walker. The classical collection includes pieces by Bach, Beethoven, Corelli, Dvorák, Seitz, Shostokovich, and others. The uniqueness of this collection is that the melodic material is shared among the different parts equally, making them more enjoyable to play and perform.

The tenth concerto in B minor in L'Estro Armonico (best translated as The Harmonious Inspiration) which is edited here in A minor - for four solo guitars - is one of the most famous in the entire collection -- indeed inVivaldi's entire output. Scored for four solo violins two solo violas solo violoncello and an strings orchestra. Johann Sebastian Bach not only admired Vivaldi's Opus 3; he copied it openly. In a general sense the Vivaldipieces gave impetus to much that is in the German master's Brandenburg Concertos. More particulary six concertos of Vivaldi's Opus 3 were copied by Bach as the basis for six of his concertos: two for 0rgan (BWV 593 and 596 basedon Opus 3 nos. 8 and 11 respectively) three for solo harpsichord ) BWV 978 972 and 976 based on Opus 3 nos. 3 9 and 12 respectively) and one for four harpsichords and orchestra in A minor (BWV 1065 based on Opus 3 no. 10).Bach frequently rewrote concertos scored for one kind of instrument substituting another. It is evident that Bach thought not so much in terms of the violinistic nature of the originals but in their harmonic and rhythmicpotential which could be realized on any instrument. Since Bach has already justified an arrangement of Opus 3 number 10 by the great aesthetic success of his four-harpsichord version it serves to reason that an arrangementfor four guitars is equally valid. Just as Bach preserved everything of the original Vivaldi and added only a few doubling to accomodate the left hands of the harpsichordists so in this version the substitution of guitars is donewith little or no change of original-notes. The arpeggios especially prominent in the second movement lend themselves ideally to guitar playing and the ability of the guitar to play both lyrical lines as well as passage worksuits the violinistic lines and passages of the original.

Farewell to philosophy. Par BRYARS GAVIN. I have a great fondness for the lower string instruments: I am a bass player, my mother is a cellist, as are both my daughters; my own ensemble includes two violas, a cello and a bass, and for the instrumentation of my opera Medea I omit the entire violin section from the orchestra. As I have written a number of works for solo instrument or voice with orchestra I welcomed the opportunity to write a concerto for cello and orchestra and especially one which focuses particularly on the instrument’s lyrical qualities. Although the piece is in one continuous movement, and the soloist is playing almost without a break, it nevertheless falls into distinct sections which are recognisable by a shift of tempo as well as by a change in the music’s character. One of the early ideas Julian Lloyd Webber and I discussed was that it might form a companion piece to one of the Haydn concertos. Given my friendship with some members of the English Chamber Orchestra and my awareness of their repertoire, this suggested a number of particular musical references. The subtitle to the work, for example, combines the subtitles of two idiosyncratic Haydn symphonies and I allude to them in different ways but chiefly through orchestration: for The Philosopher by including a section in the concerto where the orchestration resembles that of the symphony’s first movement (pairs of English and French horns, muted violins and unmuted lower strings); for The Farewell, by the progressive reduction in the orchestration towards the end. Indeed, apart from the orchestral tutti in the last few bars, the last pages of the score are virtually for string quartet. The subtitle also refers to my own background as a philosophy graduate... The piece was commissioned by Philips Classics for Julian Lloyd Webber and is dedicated to him. The first performance was given by Julian Lloyd Webber and the English Chamber Orchestra conducted by James Judd, 21 November 1995, Barbican Hall, London. Gavin Bryars/ Répertoire / Violoncelle et Orchestre