Beethoven "Eyeglasses" Duo, WoO 32, and Kalliwoda, Six Nocturnes, Op. 186

My Sunday evening sonata partner plays the cello as well as the piano (and about a dozen instruments besides, but that's another story!) and so last week I got him to get his cello out of the basement to join me in one of my favorite pieces, the Beethoven Duo for Viola and Cello, called the "Eyeglasses" because of the note on the manuscript, "mit zwei obligaten Augengläsern".  It was never published in Beethoven's lifetime, and has the bizarre-looking catalog number "WoO 32", where "WoO" stands for "Werke ohne Opus", work without opus number.  Apparently, the first movement wasn't published until 1912, after it was discovered in one Beethoven's notebooks; the second movement was found in the same notebook in the 1940s.   I'm just happy it survived: it's just a fun, fun piece.  And it's the first piece I played when I started playing the viola again back in 2009 (with this same cellist, as it happens!)

As readers of this blog will remember, I'm on a real Kalliwoda kick, and my sonata partner was very indulgent, and read through with me his Six Nocturnes for Viola and Piano, Op. 186.  I think these are wonderful pieces: very "violistic", if I can coin that phrase.  My partner said that they were very sight-readable, because Kalliwoda never does anything in the least unexpected. :-(  Still, I think all violists ought to give these a try.  I may like the first one the best; listen and see if you don't think it's very pretty.  My sonata partner likened some of these pieces to melodies by Sir Arthur Sullivan, and to me, that's high praise (I used to be a huge Gilbert and Sullivan fan!)

I realized that there's a link here: both of these pieces are what I call "fun", and that's a thread that can be hard to find in chamber music, particularly in the romantic era.  Haydn certainly had fun, and created fun experiences for his players, as did Beethoven early in his career.  But somehow, music, particularly chamber music, took a very serious turn early in the nineteenth century, leaving "fun" to composers like Strauss, Offenbach, and Sullivan.  I mean, I just adore Brahms, but no one would ever consider calling his chamber music "fun"!

Duets and Trio, Kalliwoda, Bach/David, Beethoven

Following along on the theme of catching up on my blog, I'm going to combine parts of two different sessions, so that I can talk about a couple of themes: smaller groups, and arrangements.

First, continuing my obsession with Kalliwoda, I got to play the first of his two violin-viola duets, the Op. 208, No. 1 in C major.   There's a blog post about these two duets here, and I have to say, I agree: wonderful pieces.  Kalliwoda has a gift for melody, I think, and his writing is technically gratifying for both instruments.  Maybe he does love double-stops a bit too much, but he writes them so cleverly that I forgive him.  And he does manage to get a full, rich sound out of only two instruments!

In that same session, we played about half of the Ferdinand David transcription for violin and viola of the Bach Two-Part Inventions.  You can hear three of them here.  I think they work remarkably well, particularly the famous F major No. 8.  I'm eager to play more of David's transcriptions.  And maybe even add his string quartet to my list of quartets by obscure composers to play (not that that list needs more entries!)

I suppose this is a good place to discuss my feelings about arrangements and transcriptions.  I'm in favor of them, as long as they're done with a real understanding of the instruments being transcribed for.   I don't like, for example, to play a string quartet with a flute taking over the first violin part.  But something like the Bach transcriptions by David, an expert violinist (he premiered the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto) can work really well.

On a separate occasion, waiting for a tardy cellist for a session of string quartets, I got to play another transcription, this time the first movement of Beethoven's Op. 87 Trio for Two Oboes and English Horn, in the Henle edition for two violins and viola, prepared by Egon Voss.  It's unclear whether the string version is Beethoven's or not, but he at least approved it.  And it's delightful: notwithstanding the high opus number, this is a very early work, and I have a particular fondness for Beethoven's earliest music.  Another example of a transcription working very well!  You can listen to the original version here, and the transcription here, and form your own opinion.

Chiara String Quartet Workshop: Dvorak Op. 51, and Herzogenberg Op. 27 No. 2

Yesterday I attended a string quartet workshop given by the Chiara String Quartet at the Northampton Community Music Center.  This was the first time I'd ever been to such a thing, and the first time I'd had any coaching since graduate school.  And I have to say, I had a marvelous time!

The format was as follows: we had coaching from one member of the string quartet for 45 minutes, then 45 minutes to rehearse what we'd learned.  Then a 15 minute break, and then the same pattern.  Lunch, and the afternoon followed the morning pattern.  It felt to be the right amount of coaching and playing for a day, although 45 minutes seemed an awfully short period of time when a coach is saying all sorts of fascinating things.

I had been nervous that my playing wouldn't be good enough, and I'd get some harsh criticism, but all four coaches were very nice, and had nothing negative to say.  I suppose that's not surprising, since if we didn't enjoy ourselves, we wouldn't come back. :-)

Our second violinist is very experienced at being coached, and her suggestion that we just work on one movement, the first of the Dvorak Op. 51 string quartet in E-flat major, was really good: it was just the right amount of music for the day's coaching.

The amount and variety of ideas that the coaches (and my fellow players!) planted in my head almost made my brain explode.  From the very technical: how if you're playing in E-flat major, the E-flat should be sharper than equal tempered to make a just major third with the open G string (I could write a whole blog post on tuning, temperament, the fundamental theorem of arithmetic, and the string quartet, but that will have to be another time); how to unify the sound the lower strings need to play with their bows closer to the bridge, which excites more of the higher harmonics in the sound, both clarifying the pitch and making it easier for the violins to blend in.  But there was also a lot of metaphor in a lot of adjectives: hot, cool, open, closed, glassy, pressured, pompous, songlike, dancelike.  As I said, enough to make my brain explode!

I wish my engineering education had had more of this kind of thing.  Maybe engineering isn't really suited to coaching, but certainly the creative spirit, so important in engineering as it is music, isn't fostered by the kind of classroom, test and fact focused teaching I had back in the 1980s.   I'm not being entirely fair: I'm in touch with one of the professors at my alma mater who's been involved in revamping the curriculum, and they've moved it significantly in this direction.

I'm eager to have more coaching.  I'm already signed up for some in early August; maybe I will have other opportunities sooner.

We had a break at the end of the day, and one of our violinists needed to leave early.  Fortunately, I'd brought a collection of trios, and convinced the other two to try the Herzogenberg String Trio Op. 27 No. 2.   As is usually the case, I enjoyed the experience of playing music by an obscure composer more than my partners, but they were very nice about it.  Herzogenberg is often called a Brahms imitator, but I think he has some significant differences from Brahms that show up in his trios.  First, Brahms is incapable of writing a thin texture, but Herzogenberg manages it quite well: the opening phrase of this trio is for cello alone, pizzicato.  And Herzogeberg's string writing is much friendlier than Brahms, particularly his viola parts, which are fun and rewarding to play.   Listen for yourself, and let me know if you don't think this is lovely music!

At the end of the day, we we treated to a concert by the Chiara Quartet: the Brahms Op. 67 quartet, which they're preparing for an upcoming recording.  I love this quartet, both because of the compositional intricacies, but also because the whole third movement and the first quarter of the last movement are practically a viola concerto.  (I'd love to work on this piece with a quartet, but I think I'd need to build up a lot of viola points before I could convince people to do it with me. :-)

The Chiara Quartet gave an absolutely thrilling performance.  I was particularly struck with the completely convincing flexibility of tempo they employed (something else they'd talked to us about during the day).  Fortunately, their recording of this quartet (and the other two, and the G major quintet) has gotten enough Kickstarter funding that it will definitely be coming out.  I'm really looking forward to it!

van Bree, String Quartet No. 1 in a minor, String Quartet No. 2 in E-flat major

Way back in the depths of time (that is, when I was in graduate school), I heard a very interesting piece on the radio.  (It’s funny how clear some memories are: I remember exactly where I was at the time, standing at the bus stop near my apartment).  The piece was the Allegro for Four String Quartets by the Dutch romantic violinist and composer, Johannes Bernardus van Bree (1801-1857).  A nice sonata-form movement, with a catchy tune as the second theme, and I thought it would be great fun to play it someday.  But getting fifteen other willing participants, and a large enough location, seemed daunting.

I was at a chamber music weekend last spring, and finally got a chance to play the van Bree.  It was a lot of fun, and went over reasonably well: people remarked that it was much more like a piece of chamber music than the Brandenburgs that are often played in such situations.  People asked me about the composer, and I had to admit I knew very little about him.

Research after I got home showed that van Bree published three string quartets, and that the third was available from Edition Silvertrust.  I ordered it, both out of curiosity and as a present for one of the violinists I played quartets with, a visiting scientist from the Netherlands.  The third string quartet by van Bree showed both the positive and negative qualities I’d perceived in the Allegro for Four String Quartets: a real gift for melody, but a lack of imagination in form: everything was extremely regular and rather predictable.  Still, a fun piece to play.

van Bree’s second string quartet was only available as a scan of the original edition on IMSLP, and, as I’ve remarked before, music printed before the second half of the nineteenth century can be pretty hard to read.  I’d been playing around with Sibelius music layout software, and decided that it would be a fun project to make my own edition of this piece.  And it was fun, working without a score, putting in the parts one at a time, seeing how they overlapped and interacted, and hearing the work come to life through my speakers.  (Sibelius version 7 has impressively good playback capabilities, although with some annoying bugs: staccato notes in the strings are significantly louder than legato).

But, overall, my impression of van Bree’s second string quartet is that it’s even more mediocre than his third.  I wrote a blog post about it, The Value of Mediocrity.  But hidden in the formal dullness (really, do you *always* have to have entries in the order cello-viola-second violin-first violin?) are again some truly charming melodies.

I continued this project one step further.  The only place I was able to track down a copy of the van Bree first string quartet was the Nederlands Muziek Instituut (the Dutch National Music Library), which very kindly sent me a photocopy of the parts.  And I started the process of making my own edition.

The van Bree third string quartet has been recorded, although the recording is out of print.  The second, as far as I can tell, has had only one recent live performance by the Gaudeamus Quartet, which I discovered on the website of a Dutch radio station.  But I’m convinced that the first quartet hasn’t been played this century, or maybe even in the last.  You’d pretty much have to do what I did, make your own edition, because as published, the parts are filled with errors.  Not just inconsistencies of dynamics and bowing, but just plain wrong notes: for example, there’s an entire passage in the first violin part that seems to be off by a half step.

After all that work, my conclusion is that the first quartet is weaker than the second.  It has the disadvantage, for me, of being in the “quatuor brillant” style, which is basically a concerto for the first violin with the other three instruments accompanying.  And it’s again formally very dull.  But the jaunty tune that starts the last movement has become a real favorite of mine.  I’m probably the only person in the world who goes around singing a theme from van Bree’s first string quartet!

Wednesday evening I finally got a chance to play these two quartets from my own edition, taking advantage of my Dutch violinist friend’s return, and two other willing participants.  It was fun, although I’m sure I enjoyed it more than the others did.

I don’t know what it is, but I like playing music by obscure composers.  Part of it is that I love playing pieces I’ve never played before, and particularly, pieces I’ve never heard before.  But also, as I wrote in The Value of Mediocrity, I think it’s good to play mediocre music from time to time, so that one can appreciate great music all the more.  And even in mediocre music there are moments of brilliance, moments that make you happy to have experienced them.

But for some reason, it's really hard to find amateur chamber musicians who are willing to try pieces by obscure composers.  So if you're reading this because a Google search for van Bree (or Kalliwoda, or Herzogenberg, or Dohnanyi, or Arriaga, or Richter, or Hoffstetter, etc.) has sent you here, and you want to try playing some of these pieces, send me email, and we'll see what we can arrange!

I’m not sure what to do next with the van Bree string quartets.  I’m planning on cleaning up my editions and uploading them to IMSLP.  But after all this work, I’d really like to have a recording of these quartets, and as I’ve said, none are available.  I am tempted to commission a professional or semi-pro string quartet to make a recording for me, but I don’t know how to proceed with that.  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Violin duets, de Bériot and Kalliwoda

Duets yesterday evening with my intermediate violinist friend.  First up was another find from IMSLP, the "Douze petits Duos faciles" by Charles Auguste de Bériot. I wasn't too impressed with the first one; I remarked that we played it better than it deserved.  The second was better, but the third one was a little tough for sight-reading.  And later on in the collection, there's a scherzo in B minor with a trio in B major.  I suppose de Bériot figured that beginners should suffer through five sharps like the rest of us. :-)



I really like IMSLP: it's a wonderful site to find obscure mid-nineteenth century to early twentieth century music.  (Earlier than that, the style of music printing makes it hard for us moderns to read; after that, you run into copyright issues).  There was an interesting article about a year ago in the New York Times about IMSLP.  I have no qualms about using it for public domain music.  If a publisher wants to go to the trouble to create new editions of public domain music, like Henle and the complete Haydn quartets, that's worth my money.  But those publishers who just push out copies of nineteenth century engravings (sometimes messing them up with incorrect rehearsal letters or ruining the page turns) don't deserve my patronage.

We then continued with the Three Very Easy Duets by Kalliwoda (Kalivoda), Op. 178.  These are the first three of a set of twelve, it seems (the Op. 178-181).   Even easier than the ones we played at the beginning of the month, they're pretty good (definitely better than the de Bériot).  One could wish for a little more creativity on Kalliwoda's part (really, does every sonata form development section have to start with a bar rest for the second violin, who then imitates what the first violin plays?), but I think they're worth playing.  But then, I do have a soft spot for the music of obscure composers!

Violin Duets, Kalliwoda, Op. 179 and Bartok, Sz 98

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!).