Viola quintets for the second evening in a row, and again, for the reason that I was crashing a string quartet party. Everyone in this quartet was very nice, particularly the host violist, who let me play all the fun parts (at least, that's how it seems to me). Violinists are used to doing "the dance" of deciding who will play first and who will play second, but violists don't get as much practice at it, so we tend not to do it very well. :-)
I suggested the first piece, the Mozart C major quintet, K515, because I'd just heard it on the Gardner Museum podcast. What an amazing piece. Particularly in the first movement, Mozart is writing on a scale he seldom reaches. My Grumiaux recording clocks in at just under 15 minutes for the movement, which is way longer than any of the other Mozart quintet first movements. I joke that it's a great example of Mozart not being in a hurry. :-) It's not surprising that Schubert, a composer famous for not being in a hurry, used this quintet as a model for his cello quintet.
[ A confession to make: one of my background projects is writing variations on Happy Birthday in the style of various chamber music composers. This first movement is the one I based my "Mozart" variation on: you can pretty much keep everything except exchange the first violin Mozart melody with the much less interesting one from the Hill sisters. :-) ]
This beautiful Mozart melody has a turn in it. Can I mention how much I dislike the notation for a turn? When you're sight reading, you have to make quick decisions about what position to be in, and you make those decisions based on the notes you see. But a turn implies that you're going to have to quickly play a note below the one notated on the page, and you can easily have chosen a bad position for that. Grumble. Music notation is fascinating, particularly because of all the features that weren't designed, but just evolved.
I got to play first viola in the slow movement, which is a duet between the first violin and first viola, with the other three instruments accompanying. I felt the first violinist and I had a good rapport, and I hope that will continue as we play together more. She did a particularly good job in the last movement, playing the silly Mozart theme in an appropriately silly way. :-)
Next up was the Brahms Op. 88 quintet, which (you'll remember if you're paying attention) was the second time I'd played it in as many days. I stuck withe the second viola part, and I definitely played better this time: it's almost as if practice does something. :-) It points out to me that maybe I'm being a little too focused on my "life lists", trying to play so many different pieces of music, rather than focusing on fewer and getting them in better shape. I guess the only way to reconcile these conflicting desires is to play a lot more. :-)
We had time for only the first two movements of the Dvorak "American" quintet. This was a piece I'd played three times before, which may be a record for me. All those times were on second viola, but this time I got to play first viola, and was surprised how different the experience was. I didn't do a fantastic job in the beautiful solo in the middle of the scherzo: my upper position sight reading on the viola leaves something to be desired. But I think everyone had fun!
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