HUMMEL POTPOURRI FOR VIOLA AND PIANO

Violist Timothy Ridout considers the endless invention and simple elegance of a work written for popular appeal

From Hummel Potpourri, Op.94. Urtext edition, paperbound with marked and unmarked string parts. Ed. Norbert Gertsch & Johanna Steiner. Pf reduction Johannes Umbreit. Vla fingering & bowing Tabea Zimmermann. Order no.HN838. ISMN 979-0-2018-0838-3. €28.00. Printed with permission of G. Henle Verlag, Munich © 2007

Writing in 1820, at the end of a golden period for the viola as a solo instrument, Johann Nepomuk Hummel chose a form that would enable him to quote familiar operatic themes while showcasing the skill of a soloist, and satisfying the more sophisticated tastes of the musical cognoscenti. People really would have known the melodies he chose. They were incredibly popular and I think the ‘potpourri’ form itself was also quite fashionable.

Historically this piece has often been performed in its substantially shortened version, Fantasia. My understanding is that the publisher trimmed it down to make it more appealing to amateur players. The Potpourri’s middle variations, which don’t appear in the Fantasia, contain some of the trickiest material and while the cuts make it easier, I think it is a great pity to lose them, so I always perform the full 20-minute version known as Potpourri.

Style and character

Hummel does a fantastic job of making variations out of the themes, using interesting string techniques, letting the soloist create accompaniments around themes in the orchestra and reharmonising melodies. This is all woven together with original material in such a way that you hardly notice you are jumping between composers or different operas.

Throughout, it needs to be played with a lot of character. That isn’t to say it needs anything adding to it; rather, it’s about trying to get all of the goodness out of what is there, always referring to the score.

Although the piece was written on the cusp of the Romantic period, the style could be understood as late Classical. We consider how to deal with phrasing and where the weighting should be on different beats of the bar, but in the end it just has to be played in a natural, expressive way that captures the drama of the piece. So, before thinking about vibrato and the role of the bow, I like to try singing the phrases to know how I want them to sound on the instrument.

THE SOLOIST

KAUPO KIKKAS

NAME TIMOTHY RIDOUT

NATIONALITY BRITISH

STUDIED WITH NOBUKO IMAI, MARTIN OUTRAM, JONATHAN BARRITT

RECORDS FOR ERATO, HARMONIA MUNDI

‘Playing with elegance and simplicity takes a lot of work and control: it’s both the most natural thing in the world and possibly the hardest to convey’

Ridout’s upcoming recordings include Elgar’s Cello Concerto and Bloch’s Suite (1919) for Harmonia Mundi in January 2023

The expressivity of intervals

At the beginning, the orchestra sets a dramatic tone with declamatory chords in G minor. This offsets the more personal and singing nature of the viola’s material. To find the right character you have to explore the expressivity of the intervals: the diminished 5th at the end of the viola’s first bar, for example, and the rising 6ths that begin the first two short phrases, contrasted with the surprise of the minor 2nd at the start of the third phrase.

In shaping phrases we look at whether the notes are leading towards or away from something. The paradox is that occasionally intervals towards the end of phrases suggest an increase in intensity. The descending chromatic notes from bars 10 to 11, for example, are dying away and are even marked diminuendo but, at the same time, the line they create has a sustained energy to it.

Elegance and simplicity

After the drama of the introduction, the sweetness of Don Ottavio’s aria from Don Giovanni comes over all the more clearly. We are firmly in the Mozartian world here and to find the right style, we need to pay close attention to shaping. For example, the three notes of bar 30 can ‘open out’ and lead towards the third beat. But avoid landing on it with an accent. Again, the phrasing is there if you sing it so I think we can really be guided by our own voices. Playing with elegance and simplicity takes a lot of work and control though: it’s both the most natural thing in the world and possibly the hardest to convey.

One of the other challenges that presents itself in this section is the ornamentation. With the turn in bar 34, for example, there are quite a lot of notes to fit in a short space of time and we want to make it as elegant as possible, not cluttered. It’s easy to forget about one hand as we focus on the other but it’s especially important here to make sure they support each other. If you release the bow pressure too much, for example, then the small notes won’t speak. Similarly, in bar 38 the ornamentation needs to be adding to the elegance rather than taking away from it.

Technical management for performance outcomes

When playing with orchestra I will use more bows, i.e. split slurs, in places like bar 48 where I want the sound to be free and not too compact. We all have a certain musical ideology about how we are going to play but there are also practicalities around making sure it sounds the way you want in a large hall.

The Allegro con brio section at bar 94 has some of the most technical passages in it, especially in the section of dominant preparation from bar 129. You might say the writing is better suited to a keyboard instrument. To get the degree of control needed in both hands the focus needs to be on economy of movement while musically you are just playing elegant sequences. The series of falling 6ths, for example, can sound beautifully nonchalant. With technically demanding passages we can find ourselves getting into strange habits so occasionally I like to reset my brain and practise those passages standing on one leg, as if I was doing a home workout. If there is undue tension, it will soon become apparent!

Variations on Figaro’s aria

Here Hummel lets the orchestra play the theme while from bar 180 the solo part dances around it. When the soloist does get to play the theme in bar 208 it is reharmonised in such a way as to make a true eight-bar phrase rather than two four-bar phrases, which I find really beautiful.

The second set of these variations, which are based on ‘Se vuol ballare’ from Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, is another place with significant technical challenges. Again, it’s about economy of movement in the bow arm while letting the playful character come across with elegance.

Tension and rigour

After ending the Figaro section with a question, Hummel begins the next section in bar 254 by letting the solo viola answer with a theme from Die Entführung aus dem Serail. The tension builds as soloist and orchestra battle it out in a whirlwind, which spits us out into the fugue in bar 277. For the fugue I prefer to leave the viola part to the orchestra’s section principal, who will be used to working with the other principals and blend more evenly.

Tranquillity

One of my favourite moments of the piece is the peaceful section after the fugue, beginning in bar 344 with slow trills in A major, where the viola weaves around beautiful music from the quartet in Act 2 of Die Entführung. The timpani pedal on A introduces a hint of drama and a transition section in bar 379 establishes the new key and paves the way for the variations on a theme from Rossini’s Tancredi in bar 450 (not included in the provided score).

Invention

The simple cantabile theme by Rossini is stated again and again but each time it comes back it is enriched in some way. First of all it is accompanied solely by first violins, the next time joined by seconds, then full string section, and later with interweaving chromatic lines in the strings. The forte rising arpeggios that begin the next section have such pride about them and I like to imagine the low F turns having a cello-like quality. Appoggiaturas shape the answering phrases and the exaggerated third one each time can be really pronounced.

The transition into the rondo finale may serve to move us from F major to D major but it does it beautifully, using fragments of the Tancredi theme. The journey seems just as important as the destination. The rondo is high-energy from beginning to end and isn’t without its technical demands with ornaments and a final passage of fast string-crossings, but these add to the playful crossrhythms and wide intervals. The piece then romps to an exuberant finish.

INTERVIEW BY HELENA RUINARD