Hi everyone,

As mentioned in the Adult Learner's forum I can't play the oboe right now, so I'm really enjoying playing my viola instead. I'm just about getting to grips with the alto clef enough to be able to sightread through simple pieces, and my oboe teacher (who also plays violin and viola) is giving me viola lessons in lieu of oboe lessons. I should be OK playing the violin/viola for a good few weeks before the injections I've just had wear off, so I need to make the most of it

I had my first lesson on Wednesday and it was soooo enjoyable. Firstly, my teacher was extremely impressed with my Gliga Gama viola, to the point that she's considering getting one herself! Playing on such a lovely instrument is really inspiring. It's like my viola wants to play by itself, it's so responsive.

I have bought all the books with the Grade 1 pieces in it, thinking to work for the Grade 1 Challenge, but I have also got a couple of books of more advanced stuff which I picked up at the Early Music Show a couple of weeks back. One of these is a transcription of the Six Cello Sonatas by Vivaldi (RV41 - 47), and my teacher has got me working on Sonata no. 5. I'm currently working on the Allegro con Spirito. Is anyone else familar with these pieces? They're great. The good thing I find about baroque music is that it is full of patterns, which really helps when you are learning a new clef! If anyone has any advice about playing these pieces I'd be very grateful.

I know I have to work on my bowing.....I'm a bit pussy about bowing at the moment, and my teacher says I'm playing the viola like it's a violin. So I need to concentrate on giving it more welly

Further to my request for suggestion for Viola repertoire a few weeks ago, I went onto iTunes and spent a fortune buying recordings of a lot of them!

Cheers,

Toni xx

I have those sonatas although I've never really played them because I don't much like the (IMC) edition. I've just had a look at number 5 (I can't play it at the moment because I have a dislocated thumb) and it looks quite nice - I might have a go at it when I can play again...

Glad you're enjoying your viola!

Thanks Willobie. Ouch, a dislocated thumb, that doesn't sound nice! Poor you - hope it gets better soon!

I've got the IMC edition - what is it you don't like about this edition? I don't really know enough to be able to discern what makes different editions good or bad.

If you can recommend anything else around same the level as Sonata 5 I'd be really interested to know

Glad you are enjoying your viola.


I've got that edition as well and also do not like it much.


Overcoming my dislike of the edition, however, I have had a quick play through the Allegro con Spirito of No.5. It is a nice, happy piece. I think that the hardest thing is to get good, clean, string crossings when there are large leaps of more than an octave. I think it is also necessary to dig into the string a bit more with the bow at the start of notes to get it to sound nice and bouncy, whilst still getting a good tone.

This piece is much more difficult than grade one, so why are you bothering with grade one?

Did you like the recordings?

Hiya!

I was going to do Grade One for the challenge, and because I thought it would take me a lot lot longer to pick up the alto clef. I've struggled to pick up the bass clef and thought that the alto clef would be more difficult somehow - I've no idea why it's sinking in when the bass clef hasn't! I also thought that the viola would be madly confusing because it's so similar to the violin, but thankfully it feels a lot different because it's that much bigger.

Please could you tell me what it is about the edition of the Vivaldi Sonatas that you don't like? Is it that it has odd bowing marks, or something like that? I have a recording of Paul Tortelier playing Sonata 5 and he slurs the quavers, which in my opinion sounds a lot better, but I'm playing it all with separate bows because that's how it's presented in the book.

I'm loving the viola music I've bought - I'm listening through it all at the moment. "Flos Campi" is really nice, but I'm a Vaughan Williams fan anyway I've also found a lovely violin/viola duet by Handal that I would love to try playing sometime.

I think the engraving of the IMC editions is lower quality which makes them harder to read at speed so I avoid them. I put a Barenreiter edition of a different piece next to the IMC edition just to compare them, and I noticed that although there were the same number of lines on both pages, the note heads are much clearer in the barenreiter (bigger and darker). The suggested fingering and dynamics in the IMC edition also seems to be in a less distinct typeface. The IMC edition doesn't give any indication of which are original bowings and which are editorial. In some places on my copy of the IMC edition there are little white circles on top of notes, beams etc. and there are extra splodges (eg in the last bar on the second line of page 13) which just makes it harder to read quickly. Also I don't like the way the dynamics and slurs are squashed up so that in places they are almost overlapping (eg the last two lines on page11 ).

My IMC copy of the sonatas is edited by William Primrose. I have just been reading some of his words of wisdom about viola playing, and he had definite views about using a "detached and articulate manner of bowing" for Baroque music rather than the slurred bowing used by cellists like Casals. So the bowing given may just be the way Primrose liked it.

Is the violin/viola duet the Handal-Halvorsen Passacaglia, or is there another one? I love the Passacaglia.

Thanks Purpleviola! I've never really thought about the differences between different editions of music before. Are Barenreiter generally very good? I've got Barenreiter editions of some violin music and really like them.

Yes, it's the Passacaglia that I like! It's really beautiful isn't it I have a violin-playing friend who has just moved to London so it might be fun to try playing it sometime.