FRANCK VIOLIN SONATA, FIRST MOVEMENT

Taking inspiration from Jacqueline du Pré and singers, double bassist Michael Rieber shares tips on cultivating Franck’s delicate sound world, despite playing stratospherically high on the instrument

From Franck Violin Sonata in Amajor. Urtext edition with marked and unmarked string parts. Ed. Peter Jost. Pf fingering Klaus Schilde. Vn bowing and fingering Yehudi Menuhin, Daniel Hope. Order no. HN 1351. ISMN 979- 0-2018-1351-6. Printed with permission of G. Henle Verlag, München © 2016

Ihave a special relationship with this piece. I love it very much. I heard the work for the first time on the recording by Jacqueline du Pré and Daniel Barenboim, which was my reference performance for many years.

For a long time I never even thought about playing this piece. Then I heard about some crazy double bass players who did, and I had huge respect for that. When I play a transcription for double bass from other repertoire, I think that in the end it should sound as if it was originally composed for double bass. In this respect, the Franck Sonata is physically very hard to play because most of it is in thumb position. So I didn’t know if I could really master it.

Playing with freedom up high

A few years ago, I played Einojuhani Rautavaara’s double bass concerto. It’s a piece I’d hesitated to play for years, because all I could think about was half an hour playing only in thumb position, as loud as possible and all cantabile! But after I finally performed it, I learnt so much about relaxing in thumb position; something that I bring to the Franck Sonata. You need to be completely free to capture this wonderful French mood – you can’t create a sound like this if you’re trying too hard on the instrument.

One of the challenges when approaching the beginning, which is marked molto dolce, is capturing a sound that is delicate, intimate and not too healthy, while playing in thumb position. I have found a fingering that works for me, which feels safe when I’m performing.

There is no dynamic marked at the beginning. In my opinion, when a French composer writes molto dolce, it should not be forte. You can decide what the dynamic should be, but bear in mind you have to hold something back because you don’t reach fortissimo until bar 30. It’s the same the second time around from bars 86 to 88 with the same climax, although here it’s written tutta forza. So the first time around, the fortissimo should be under the dynamic of the tutta forza at the end. Jacqueline du Pré did this so beautifully, because she reaches a climax in bars 30 to 31 but you always have the feeling she is keeping something in reserve. This builds up so much tension until the second time, and then it explodes! Sometimes I try to emulate her ideas of musical architecture, which create an overall arc and narrative of the movement.

THE SOLOIST

NAME

MICHAEL RIEBER

NATIONALITY

GERMAN

STUDIED WITH

ULRICH LAU

RECORDS FOR

ES-DUR, BAYER RECORDS, EBS RECORDS

‘You need to be completely free to capture this wonderful French mood – you can’t create a sound like this by trying too hard’

Michael Rieber performs French works by Desenclos, Fauré, Franck and Ravel with pianist Norbert Goerlich on their album Nuits Blanches, which is out now on CD and digital platforms.

JEWGENI ROPPEL

Another thing I took from Jacqueline du Pré’s recording, which I aim to achieve in my playing in general, is that I try to find a sound that speaks and sounds like singing. Listening to recordings of Maria Callas, I try to imitate the phrasing and the shape of the musical line and sound like a human voice.

In the penultimate bar, there is a high D. Up until then, I think the whole character is melancholic. So you can use this arrival at the high note to open out to a major key – you can imagine entering heaven, or the sun coming out after darkness. I try to play it the way a singer would sing that interval, taking time to travel between the notes.

Balancing contact point in the right hand

When you are playing this high in thumb position, you have to keep close to the bridge with your bow, otherwise the intonation suffers. At the same time, you want to create a delicate, tasto sound, but doing this means your hands are too close together and you are shortening the length of the string. In addition, if you don’t play close enough to the bridge, you won’t achieve a soloistic sound on the instrument. To address this, I sometimes try to play in one position as much as possible but be flexible with the length of bow I use. It’s difficult because you can’t use too much weight close to the bridge, but not enough means the sound won’t be right.

Smooth bow changes

From bar 47, after the piano solo, I break up the bowing so I can fit the notes into the bow. One of the difficulties of doing this on the double bass is that it shouldn’t sound like you are making any bow changes, and that makes longer phrases challenging. I learnt so much from cellists about achieving smooth bow changes. This is because in my first orchestral jobs, I was always sitting behind and observing very good cellists! I learnt to play with the weight of the arm to get power on the bow, but not to push. It should be a passive movement; you just move your arm and the bow should just go. Also remember to think about the elbow; when you prepare an up bow, you should go a little bit higher with your elbow to bring power on top of the bow. Once you play the down bow, you then bring your elbow down. I think of making a figure-of-eight or the infinity symbol with my right elbow.

‘Listening to the recordings of Maria Callas, I try to imitate the phrasing and the shape of the musical line and sound like a human voice’

Vibrato

The problem I sometimes hear when listening to double bass recordings, and especially of this sonata, is that the vibrato is very fast and doesn’t fit well with the instrument’s sound. Perhaps some bass players feel they need to have strong power on the string to keep it down on the fingerboard in order to produce a clear sound. This creates tension in the arm and results in faster vibrato.

I do something special, which I don’t think anyone else does: I sometimes put my left thumb under the fingerboard in high positions. When you play very high and press down hard on the string, the fingerboard goes down as well, because it is not fixed that strongly. And when you’re pressing you’re not relaxed and this comes through in your vibrato. So I started to place my thumb as if I were in a normal, lower position, which provides me with more stability and amplitude in my vibrato. This changed my technique; I’m completely relaxed and need less power in my left arm and hand than I used to.

That said, I still need to use my thumb on the string in high positions for technical movements.

Achieving the right balance with the piano

It is a lifelong challenge to find balance with the piano. You don’t want to fight against the piano by playing as hard as you can, because your intonation and sound quality will suffer. Plus you won’t be relaxed.

Find out what is the top end of your dynamic range, realistically, and don’t be tempted to go over that. When working with a pianist, you can give feedback to each other to create the perfect balance within your dynamic abilities. Remember to read the hall or the room in which you are playing because it’s always different. Pianos are so different. Pianists are so different. You have to discover the sound you make together and explore that balance.

If you are a violinist, you will almost always be heard above the piano, so there’s less of a struggle to project. But for bassists, your melodies fall within the same register as the piano accompaniment. So there are a lot of challenges in this piece in terms of making sure that your lines are heard in the way that you want, but you can use the strategies in your left and right hands to counteract this.

INTERVIEW BY DAVINA SHUM