Tonight I just finished a rehearsal with my longtime friend and stand partner, OSO principal violist Joël Belgique, of George Benjamin‘s 1997 work for two violas, Viola, viola.
It’s our second time through, and I’m reminded of an aphorism often cited by our pianist friend Cary Lewis, namely that no one should have to play a difficult piece the first time.
Our first time with this piece was in 2002, for the International Viola Congress in Seattle. It seems to be going together a lot easier, but it’s a tricky piece, and there’s a lot to do for both parts, and even though we read off of a score which has both parts, it’s often hard to spare a moment to tear one’s eyes away from one’s own part to look at what the other guy is doing!
Here’s an example of one of the busiest spots (click music to enlarge):
It’s quite a spectacular, if difficult, piece. Benjamin succeeds to a remarkable degree in creating a piece for two instruments that often sounds as if several more were actually playing. It takes advantage of the timbre of the viola’s alto voice to great effect, and really is a tour de force of string orchestration.
We’ll be playing this piece, which lasts about 8 minutes or so, on this coming weekend’s tribute to Messiaen’s 100th birthday, presented by Marzen. See the flyer below.
