Duo for Violin and Viola

February 5, 2009 at 08:33 AM ·

Hi Nigel,  that was really fun - quirky and edgy.  I'd love to hear the rest.  Have you played around with different speeds, or is the only one that works for that movement?

February 8, 2009 at 01:53 PM ·

Thanks for listening, Susan. That fourth movement probably has the most room to experiment with different tempi - on that take I'd say that we played it at the slower end of the scale. The other three movements seem to sit well at the tempo indicated. I'll try and get recordings of movements 1-3 on my site as soon as possible.

February 9, 2009 at 10:58 PM ·

Looks really interesting.  Now all I have to do is find someone else who can play the violin or viola part.

I have to say that the version for 2 violas looks fiendishly difficult for the top viola, playing well up the A string like that is an order of magnitude harder than the equivalent on the violin, I'd hazard a guess it's almost implossible to make it sound right.  Eg the Franck Sonata 1st mvt played on viola - not worth bothering with IMO.

February 11, 2009 at 06:43 PM ·

Jim, just to explain that the two viola version was definitely an afterthought, done after being prompted by a violist asking me if I'd consider converting it. Then yet another violist I know who does two viola concerts was interested when I mentioned it; I tried to email it to him and as a result of quirky email behaviour we agreed he'd get it off the page, which he has, so I've since taken it off.

I broadly agree with you, my impression was that the top viola part was rather high, rather often, although of course there's plenty of viola music that goes higher than that. I worked out a fingering for the first couple of movements that seemed it would be reliable once it was well familiar. I'd have to extensively rework it to improve that second version to make it significantly easier at which point I'd rather construct something new from the beginning for two violas. 

February 13, 2009 at 10:22 AM ·

Nigel, I didn't mean to suggest that it was ineffectively-written or 'wrong', it was just a comment.  I don't think I've ever yet blamed a composer for something they have written and I'd be very interested to try it or any further versions as I didn't get the chance to download it - zen18633 at zen dot co dot uk.

Scott Slapin is probably the resident expert on two viola duos, as I'm sure you're aware.

May 20, 2009 at 09:57 PM ·

I haven't thought too much about the two viola version since February as we performed the violin viola duo at the end of April - the first full performance of it. As expected the tempo of the fourth movement ended up faster than the previous recording I had on the webpage, and I've also added a recording of the second movement to give an idea of how it goes.

June 5, 2010 at 06:44 PM ·

I've just made a new recording with Simone Roggen (violin) and Cyprien Busolini (viola) playing. This recording, that will be going onto a CD very shortly, can be heard on my webpage for the work.

May 20, 2011 at 07:43 AM ·

 Simone Roggen just performed the Brahms Violin Concerto here in Paris this week, on Tuesday and Wednesday. It was a great performance from Simone. 

March 12, 2013 at 09:51 AM · Seeing a two-viola work was mentioned on this thread, I do now have an original work for that combination, finished earlier this year: Double Jeu.

Visconti Variations stays exclusively for violin and viola.

June 29, 2014 at 03:06 PM · Double Jeu for two violas now has a recording to listen to, that I made recently. Is there a topic for two viola duo repertoire? Nothing seemed to come up in a search.

June 29, 2014 at 03:14 PM · "Is there a topic for two viola duo repertoire? Nothing seemed to come up in a search."

There are 3 duets for 2 violas available by W.F.Bach.

Will this do for starters ?

I bought these when trying to impress my University-Orchestra desk-partner. Lost the music, so cannot comment now !

June 29, 2014 at 04:19 PM · Getting back to violin and viola duos, in recent times I've discovered a couple of living composers that have repertoire for the combination that I'd play. There's Dominique Preschez who has a piece "Lignes de fuite" of around seven minutes, it's on a CD of his music titled "No Man's Land" that I have. I also met a violinist-composer from Sydney, Romano Crivici who performed his own duo music in Paris in June.

June 29, 2014 at 04:50 PM · "Getting back to violin and viola duos"... folk might like to look up this ancient thread :-

http://www.violinist.com/discussion/response.cfm%3FID%3D5112