GLAZUNOV ELEGY IN G MINOR FOR VIOLA AND PIANO OP.44

Violist Paul Laraia explores the lyrical possibilities of this miniature masterpiece and the emotional journey on which it takes the listener

Teaching & Playing

From Glazunov Elegy, op.44. Urtext edition, paperbound with marked and unmarked string parts. Ed. Dominik Rahmer. Vla fingerings and bowings, Tabea Zimmermann. Order no. HN-1241, ISMN 979-0-2018-1241-0. Printed with permission of G. Henle Verlag, München © 2014

Written in 1893 for Alexander Glazunov’s friend, Danish viola player Franz Hildebrand, this piece is one of the few original works in the Romantic idiom for viola and so it is a treasured part of our repertoire, despite its relative brevity. With its simple phrase structure and accompaniment, I imagine the viola playing the part of a troubadour while the rolled chords in the piano can almost sound like a lute. To me, this piece is an incredible exercise in simplicity, with all the complexity necessary to convey that.

Connectivity

In the first section, I think of how the great Russian bass Chalyapin would sing as inspiration for the type of vibrato and the kind of enunciation and depth in the sound required here. This vocal approach also helps to connect the notes so that the intervals don’t sound too angular, but rather like they are reaching for something.

To my ears, the opening interval of a 4th has to sound extremely vocal. A lot of the time, violists will play something like this on the open G and avoid fourth position because it can sound muted. But in this case, fourth position is warranted to keep the colour of the C string. I make sure my bowing on that pick-up is extremely fluid and connected, so I get a rounded quality for the opening.

With other intervals, vibrato can play an important role. For example, you want the D to A in bar 4 both to reach for the heavens and to incorporate a diminuendo. The interval has to be phrased off, like a single note, and intensifying the vibrato can help with that. Playing 5ths gracefully and in tune is inherently challenging and my beloved teacher Kim Kashkashian is a great advocate of rolling your finger between the strings. What I always recommend is first of all to practise 5ths blocked, so you understand where the point of equilibrium is, and then roll with the elbow. The second finger is a natural balancing point of the hand so although the third finger can work nicely if you employ the full rolling method, I tend to pull those effects off best using the second finger.

COURTESY OF PAUL LARAIA

THE SOLOIST

NAME PAUL LARAIA

NATIONALITY AMERICAN

STUDIED WITH KIM KASHKASHIAN, STEVEN DANN, CHE-HUNG CHEN

RECORDS FOR AZICA

‘This piece is an incredible exercise in simplicity, with all the complexity necessary to convey that’

See Paul Laraia perform Glazunov Elegy at bit.ly/3G08baz

Released in February 2023, vol.3 of Uncovered by the Catalyst Quartet showcases works by BAME composers of history.

Consistency of colour

Keeping the colour of each small phrase consistent is another huge part of the interpretation of this piece. Although the harmony becomes quite chromatic halfway through the first section, and we want to reflect those different colours as much as possible in our sound, I wouldn’t advocate for any stark or sudden contrasts. To strike the balance between the longer line of a phrase and those vertical moments where you might want to shade the harmony, there is a sweet spot where nothing feels too sudden, but you are still acknowledging what’s happening.

Bar 25 is the beginning of a massive build towards around bar 32. You want to carve out each of these reaching gestures. The animato feeling comes from repeatedly reaching, then coming down, and then reaching further. You can make these gestures more and more legato so that the connectivity becomes ‘thicker’ as you go along. By bars 29 and 30 we have taken over the accompanying role of the piano and the arpeggios here have an immense amount of flow and heavy legato, as if one were playing them on the piano with the pedal down.

Luminosity and momentum

With its longer lines and major key, the middle section contrasts beautifully with the more smoky colour and brooding character of the A section. I play with more density here and that creates a more luminous sound. It feels more sung than spoken, to return to the troubadour analogy, and you can play the phrases with lots of momentum – almost one in a bar. In fact, when the four-bar phrase, bars 49–52, is repeated in bars 53–56 you can think of that as one long phrase. I like to play around with where I shift to make a little differentiation in places like this. Rather than generic rules, which would suggest an echo the second time, I think nuanced changes, like a little portamento somewhere new, can go a really long way in making you feel like you’re on a journey. Again, back to the troubadour analogy: there’s a different set of lyrics even though it’s the same music.

The smoothness of the long lines can start to get a little more agitated as you’re building the momentum. The turning point is around bar 69. It’s not that you come down straight away after that point, though – you need to maintain the tension while making that diminuendo and all these sighing figures are like your last efforts.

I’ve played around with different fingerings because it is such a powerful moment. How do you make it vocal and impactful without being too sentimental? In bar 67 do you shift up to the high B flat or not? I like to shift from the G to the C in bar 68 because there is so much strength in not allowing that to be too easy. To the very highest note, the D, I would probably extend from the A flat so it sounds extremely vocal and extremely reaching but I wouldn’t necessarily do a slide up to that note. It’s better to save up that kind of expressiveness for other moments.

On the descent back to Tempo 1, I like to vary the amount of vibrato, decreasing it in line with the diminuendo. There is a sense of desperation at the top of the phrase and with every reaching figure after that it’s as if one is losing hope, so when we get to the recapitulation the music is in a much bleaker place.

Fragility

The theme at the recapitulation is an octave higher. On the viola that register is not particularly dolce and it’s a little strained to play piano that high. So, in a way, when the theme returns it’s in a more fragile place. This time, two of the wider intervals have harmonics marked on the high notes. Whether or not that is the composer’s original marking, it’s another piece of information that helps determine the bleaker colour in this section as you can’t do lots of vibrato on one note and play a harmonic on the next if you want to keep the continuity, or, as we were talking about in the first section, maintain a consistent colour through each short phrase.

The closing phrase at bars 99–100 is like the final verdict, a confession that you are, in fact, truly devastated. That’s why I like to sustain the appoggiatura note A in bar 101, playing it on the C string and delaying the diminuendo so as not to let the resolution sound too easy.

Lyrical objectivity

From bar 102 the music sends you off into another role, as though you are no longer the sad protagonist but a narrator, perhaps, commenting on the story. You can respond to the lines in the piano part as the piano and viola share the lyricism more equally here. When the piano changes harmony under the repeated phrase in bars 104–105, I like to dip into a very special colour, suggested and aided by harmonics. Harmonics on the viola are a very special colour, used to great effect in our vast 20th- and 21st-century repertoire. It can be interesting to hear such speciality colours in a purely Romantic piece like this and you can treat them as transformative moments. To keep connectivity after the harmonic A in bar 104, I play the D in bar 105 as a pseudo-harmonic, gradually turning it into a stopped note. The sound is slightly tense, no vibrato, carrying over from the D into the C, before broadening into a crescendo with vibrato on the B natural, a chromatic note highlighting the resignation of the subdominant.

Apart from what sound like a couple of last-ditch attempts to overcome fate in bars 108–109 and bar 110, in fact fate takes over from this point and the music is just travelling to the end. I like the piano part to sound unaffected in this last passage and I wouldn’t overdo the ritardando; it should just sound resigned. At the very end, I like to draw out the tension between the E flat and D, maintaining tension through that last D with a really slow bow. While not wanting to sound too pessimistic, there is a sense of finality, even if it’s not completely peaceful.

INTERVIEW BY HELENA RUINARD