Search - Lillian Fuchs, Jeanne Mallow :: Lillian Fuchs: Complete Music for Unaccompanied Viola

Who knew Lillian Fuchs was a composer, too?

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 08/17/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This was a very good month for lovers of the viola. First, there was the marvelous release of William Primrose's viola transcriptions played by the former principal viola of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Roberto Diáz, now the head of the Curtis Institute and a heckuva violist. And now we get a twofer of solo viola music written by one of the last century's great violists, Lillian Fuchs. What's more they're played by her granddaughter, Jeanne Mallow, and on Fuchs's very own huge Gaspar da Salò viola.



I have very fond memories of the playing of Lillian Fuchs. She was a constant figure at the Aspen Music Festival for many years and indeed one year our condo was just above her studio, so we heard perhaps more of her playing (and that of her students) than we might otherwise have chosen. She was a tiny woman and how she managed to play that humongous viola of hers (and in tune, too!) was a bit of a mystery. I will never forget her playing Martinu's 'Madrigals' which had been written for her and her brother, violinist Joseph Fuchs.



All that said, I had no idea Miss Fuchs had composed any music, but here we have two CDs of solo viola music, most of it written for pedagogical reasons but perfectly acceptable as concert music. There are three collections of pieces, all in a very accessible tonal quasi-baroque style. In ascending order of difficulty they are Fifteen Characteristic Studies, Sixteen Fantasy Etudes, and Twelve Caprices. Also included is her unaccompanied 'Sonata Pastorale' for Viola. Like most collections of pedagogical studies, these works, most of them fairly brief (none lasts more than five minutes), require the player to master specific technical aspects of viola-playing. Yet, they are fascinating music qua music and I certainly had no difficulty maintaining my interest over two CDs' worth of music. None of the pieces is without interest but I particularly like 'Maestoso' from the Characteristic Etudes with its solemn opening double-stops leading to a bustling middle section, or the concluding Caprice, 'perpetuum mobile,' that has the violist scampering all over the fingerboard while the bow is going crazy; it is matched by the similar perpetuum mobile that concludes the Characteristic Studies. How the latter could be called, as it is by Mallow in her excellent notes, 'easy', is beyond me! There is much more than these to marvel at.



And the playing of Jeanne Mallow is magnificent; it, dare I say it, reminds me of that of her grandmother. There is impeccable tuning, clean articulation and a muscular deep velvety tone as well as unfailing musicality . This set helps to expand the unfortunately small repertoire of music written specifically for solo viola. It definitely will be of interest to violists, of course, but also for music lovers looking for something a little out of the ordinary.



Recommended.



Scott Morrison"

A remarkable achievement

Arthur R. Krieck | New York, NY USA | 03/02/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This collection contains the first recordings of the entire output of music for solo viola by one of the 20th Century's greatest champions and teachers of the instrument. Miss Fuchs was a profoundly gifted musician, but playing the violin and viola did not come easily to her, in contrast to her brother Joseph, who was a prodigy from the beginning. "Are you still struggling with THAT?" he would say contemptuosly to her when they were children, as she worked hard to master something that he had already tossed off.



This struggle made her understand the techniques and challenges of the instrument in a way no prodigy could, and combined with her considerable gifts as a composer, she wrote what are the most idiomatic and practical studies for it. These are not violin pieces transcribed for the viola. They are written with its highly unique problems and assets in mind.



The first book, the "Twelve Caprices", were written "off the instrument", that is, in the composer's mind, without having the viola in her hands as she wrote them. Though dedicated to her husband Ludwig Stein, a fine amateur player, they were written for her own use, particularly as she was a very small woman, with tiny hands and short arms, playing a big instrument, and as a result, she had very specific needs.



The other two books were written after she began teaching the viola in earnest. Though she was a remarkable and sought-after chamber music coach, "I didn't teach the viola until my 50s," she said, "because I didn't understand it well enough!" They show a unique understanding of the problems young students face in tackling this most difficult of the violin family of instruments, in a musical and satisfying context. Each etude is short, concise and clear in form, with not a single superfluous note or gesture. They are written for modern players and students, without endless repetitions or redundancies.



The "Sonata Pastorale" was written in 1953 to put the techniques presented in the "Twelve Caprices" into a "performance" context. This work, like the three books of studies, is in a tonal but contemporary idiom, following the classical model of the sonata form and it provides great pleasure to the listener as well as to the performer.



Jeanne Mallow, the granddaughter of Lillian Fuchs, is one of today's most remarkable concert performers. She is like her grandmother in that she has her own strongly held musical convictions, grounded in knowledge and study, and guided by a finely honed artistic sense. She is not afraid to follow her musical convictions as far as they take her. Her playing is easy and musical, with a big profile, excellent intonation and a large, gorgeous tone. Her grandmother's playing was equally large in profile but had a certain grand stateliness, even a kind of gravity and reserve, which Ms. Mallow's does not. Her playing has a kind of spontaneous emotionality which is different from her grandmother's playing but utterly winning.



I had the privilege and pleasure of studying all of this music with the composer, laboring over it for five years under her watchful and encouraging eye (she was a truly great teacher), and hearing her play it in demonstration on her huge, 450-year-old Gaspar da Salo viola, the use of which Ms. Mallow has inherited and the instrument she plays in these recordings. She did not have the opportunity to study this music with her grandmother, so sometimes she interprets it in ways which are quite different from her grandmother's. Ms. Mallow is such a fine artist and approaches the work with such care and conviction that her own ideas, though different, are equally valid and convincing.



For me, on a personal level, hearing the sound of the Gaspar again, which I heard week in and week out for those five years, in the same music, here played by different hands, is a moving and wondrous experience."

Amazing

Shauna Holiman | Old Greenwich, CT, USA | 01/05/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Although it is not "easy listening" this recording is amazing and well worth the while of any person interested in string music. (The solo music for the viola is largely from modern times and the technical diffilculties of that repertoire are addressed in these studies. Very instructive.) The performance is filled with verve, liveliness and virtuosity and the unique beautiful, open sound of the Gasparo da Salo viola is something that shouldn't be missed."