I have a friend who started playing the violin several years ago, when her son started playing. We’ve been playing duets together for about a year, and it’s been a very rewarding experience, particularly to see how much better her sight-reading has gotten over that time. We’ve been playing some of the staples of my youth, Suzuki and Applebaum violin duets, and I also got a book of violin-viola duets published in Hungary that had some nice pieces in it. I’ve supplemented the menu with some arrangements and transcriptions of my own (more about those another time). But tonight we played two pieces I wanted to talk about.
First up was something I downloaded from IMSLP, “Three Easy Duos” by Kalliwoda (or Kalivoda, in the original Czech.) These weren’t great music, but they did what they wanted to do: provide a complete musical experience while staying in first position for both players. I’m looking forward to the three slightly harder duets, the Op. 180, which are in the same PDF from IMSLP, and also the “Three Very Easy Duets”, Op. 178, which I’ve put into my cart at Sheet Music Plus for my next order. Grove's says of Kalliwoda that the verdict of history has not been kind to him, but I would like to play more of his music. I admit that I have a weakness for obscure composers (more about that another time, as well!)
The only recording I’ve been able to find of the Kalliwoda duets we played this evening was this one from YouTube. I found the little girl playing the first violin part charming, even if, as my duet partner pointed out, she needs to keep her right elbow down. But she seems to be enjoying herself so much that I forgive her the technical difficulties.
We finished up the duet session with three numbers from Bartok’s 44 Duos for Two Violins, Sz 98. I love, love, love these duets. Technically straightforward (at least the early ones), musically challenging, pure Bartok from beginning to end. You can hear selections at Instant Encore (generally much better than YouTube for classical music!).
Bartok also wrote 18 duets for cello, several of which I performed with our friend Jamie at a benefit for victims of the Haiti Earthquake in 2010. Like the violin duets, the first few are technically easy and they get progressively more challenging from both a technical and musical standpoint.
ReplyDeleteThank you also for providing a link to violinist.com, which is a very nice site even for cellists to visit :-).
I think the Bartok cello duets are just transcriptions of some of the violin duets. But that shouldn't stop you from playing them: they're wonderful pieces in any octave!
ReplyDeleteThat's interesting. Which brings up the point - what would the other 25 sound like, and why were they not transcribed too? (Aha a new project! :-)
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