MOZART SINFONIA CONCERTANTE

INTERVIEW BY PAULINE HARDING

Idiosyncrasies, ensemble and eloquence help Philip Dukesto bring out the magic of Mozart in the first movement of this much-loved concerto for violin and viola

From Mozart Sinfonia Concertante KV364. Urtext edition, paperbound with marked and unmarked string parts. Ed. Wolf-Dieter Seiffert; Siegfried Petrenz (pf reduction); fingering and bowing vn Frank Peter Zimmermann, va Tabea Zimmermann. Order no. HN 798, ISMN 979-02018-0798-0, €25. Printed with permission of G. Henle Verlag, Munich © 2006

This is the concerto that I’ve played most in my career. For me, it’s the greatest Mozart concerto of all, and it’s particularly precious to viola players when you consider the solo viola repertoire prior to the 20th century. We have no concertos by Beethoven, Haydn or Mozart per se, but to have this one gem almost makes up for the fact that there isn’t much else. The first movement is a tour de force, the slow movement ravishing, and the presto zippy and exciting to conclude. It is a great piece to play and to listen to; the more you delve into it, the more you find. I have performed it with around 40 violinists: Tasmin Little, Clio Gould, Michael Davis, Jonathan Carney, Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider - the list goes on! I was followed by a Stasi agent around the clock when I played it with a pupil of Igor Ozim and the Dresden Staatskapelle in East Germany in 1988, before the Wall came down. It has given me interesting stories along the way.

One of my most treasured performances with Daniel Hope was in 1998 with Yehudi Menuhin conducting. Daniel knew him very well, so before our first coaching session Daniel said to me, ‘There are a few things to remember about Yehudi. Firstly, when he coaches us he’s likely to fall asleep. Secondly, he probably won’t remember your name. Thirdly, in the cadenzas he will stare at your left hand.’ He did all three: he fell asleep in our first session; in front of the orchestra, he said to me, ‘I’m so sorry, I’ve forgotten your name’; and when we reached the cadenzas, he literally turned to stare at my left hand! But it was a wonderful experience and our sessions with him could run without breaks from 7pm until gone 10pm.

Editions and inspiration

It’s amazing how your playing evolves over 90 performances or so, but always with the purity of the composition as its foundation. Whichever edition I’ve used, whether heavily edited or fairly clean, going back to the original score has always allowed me to find new ideas. In my opinion, the editions that are absolutely as they should be cansometimes take some sensitive and stylistic editing. I use a combination of the urtext, the heavily edited first copy I ever owned, and all the amazing things I’ve picked up from working with different violinists over the years, who all have ideas of their own.

Differences of opinion

I’ve played this piece every which way you can. For the entry in bar 72, some people prefer to begin on a down bow before the beat, others like to start with an up bow on the beat, and everything in between, so you’ll get four versions. These days I tend to say to the violinist, ‘Tell me what you want to do and I’ll do it’, although I do insist on certain things that I know will work. When the violin and the viola play together, as for the entrance at bar 72, the interpretation needs to be unanimous.

I also like to use my bowings in bars such as 102, 116, 118 and 120, which come from various editions I have used in the past - the marking in bar 102 being an alternative urtext interpretation. The little slurs in bars 116, 118 and 120 really emphasise the height of each phrase and make it more interesting.

Elsewhere, when the violin and viola answer or repeat each other’s phrases but don’t play together, there is scope for some variety. I wouldn’t expect the violin to use the same bowing as me for the beginning of the second subject in bar 98, for example - I only do that to ensure there isn’t an unnecessary bulge on the semiquavers (S) at the ends of bars 98 and 99. I choose to use two separate up bows there to allow for a more condensed bowing, which is an easier fit for the way my instrument responds. If the violinist uses a contrasting bowing that can give a slightly different inflection in the music. I like to use my own quirks and idiosyncrasies throughout the second subject, in terms of phrasing or articulation, to provide a little intrigue and interest to the audience. There is some flexibility to do this, as long as it doesn’t sound wildly different from the rest.

Violinists always diminuendo from the D of bar 97 into the viola phrase of bar 98, so when I have the same material from bar 253 I do the opposite. We are in the home key by bar 257, so it sounds absolutely gorgeous to crescendo from bar 256 and through 257, rather than to phrase away - as if to say, ‘Ah, we’re back!’

Chamber music

From a performance standpoint this is a concerto, and a very fine one - there’s no question about that. But what makes it so utterly absorbing is that while it is vital to commit to a concerto mindset, you also need the greatest powers of chamber music in order to play this piece well. The soloists should work out their instincts and map out their interpretation together. For example, I like to grow gradually through bar 194; in bar 1951 play a little more, and in bar 196 the violin plays more still. 1 The high point is in bar 197.1 play less in bars 201-203, for more intimacy. Think about whether you could crescendo through bars 208-210 or whether you’d prefer to follow the contours of the music and diminuendo through. Of course, it’s different with every violinist. There are holes in my music where I’ve rubbed out and rewritten my markings so many times!

Balance

For the violin, much of this movement is in a far brighter register than for the viola. Balance issues tend to occur when the viola is in the middle register. I play a crescendo in bar 100, to bring out the line all the way to the bottom D; in bars 141-142 the orchestra needs to be incredibly light and articulation is of primary importance. From bar 301, if the orchestral texture is too thick, the viola will be submerged. When I’m conducting rather than playing, I try to be sensitive to the viola in these areas, to ensure that it isn’t swamped.

Joiningtheorchestra

The soloists should play the tuttis in this movement and would have been expected to do so in Mozart’s time. That said, I do stop playing a few bars before the end of the opening tutti, to gather myself before the solo. I also take a breather at bar 158, to prepare myself for the next section from bar 187, which requires a lot of control.

There is an unusual instruction from Mozart on the note before the cadenza, in bar 338, but it’s entirely correct: the soloists don’t come off with the orchestra, but hold on after it has finished. He does this in the second movement as well, and it draws the ear to the solo lines, ready for the cadenza to begin. It can feel odd to do that initially, but in performance it works beautifully.

Left to rightPhilip Dukes, Yehudi Menuhin and Daniel Hope before their Mozart performance

Thecadenza

The challenge in the cadenza is primarily to find unanimity of articulation, bow stroke, phrasing and ensemble. For the 10th in bar 12 the A flat will be on an open string if you are playing the scordatura version, but I do not, so instead I play a harmonic C on the C string so that I can reach the stopped A flat. An alternative is to play a chord by adding an E flat between the two notes.

There is scope for discussion in terms of articulation and bow stroke in bar 18 of the cadenza. I tend to play an articulated stroke in the upper half and then to continue with a martele-type stroke thereafter. It should sound sophisticated, not militaristic or aggressive. There is also scope for rubato, as I have marked from bar 19.

The Adagio is exquisite, with a real champagne moment in bar 23, from the crushing pain of the G, G flat and F until the resolution a bar later. The skittish run in bar 24 should be immaculately together.

Again there is an unusual marking in bar 25: despite the fact that this is still Adagio, Mozart wants the trill to be in Tempo I. Some editions remove this marking, but in Mozart’s manuscript it is absolutely clear that this is what he wanted.

Tempo

This Allegro maestoso should be free- flowing, with shape and direction, but it shouldn’t rush, or it will lose some of its elegance, intimacy and detail. There needs to be a real differentiation between this movement, the gorgeous slow movement and the really quick presto to the end.

Sinfonia concertante