Loulie, Muller, Tasistro, Kalliwoda and Pichl
Yesterday, Adrian Smith (viola) and I had a get together and played through some rare and unloved pieces of music for violin and viola duo which had been languishing in my filing cabinet (and before then on the Petrucci music library site).
We began by sight reading through a duo by a composer called J.A Muller. His name, dates and life are a complete unknown to me as is his music. On the evidence of this duo, they will remain a mystery for ever more as the music was very poor. The viola has a continual barrage of semi-quavers with little melodic or harmonic interest and no real cohesion with the pretty melody that the violin opens with.
We soon discovered that Tasistro and Pichl duos were also unlikely to find champions who would rescue them from collecting dust as they offered very little interest or variety. The Loulie on the other hand has a lot of charming music and would serve as a nice opener for a chamber music recital.
Later on in the day, we played through Kalliwoda’s first duo (Op. 208) which I recorded a couple of years ago with Reiad and can be heard on our disc of works for violin and viola duos. This is a rousing piece which is not only vastly superior to all the others but has an extra dimension of inventiveness, imagination and almost comic opera feel. So what makes this violin / viola duo succeed where the others fail? Firstly, Kalliwoda realised that with the two instruments in such close register it wasn’t sufficient to provide a repetitive accompanying figure to a melody. He also grasped that without the extensive use of double stops, the parts can feel empty. The only composer who achieved fullness without continuous double stops was Mozart whose fluidity of the two parts and their constant conversation keeps the ear fully satisfied. Kalliwoda approaches the duo almost orchestrally with a richness and virtuosity which also has wit, charm and swagger!
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