CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Research question
What inspirations ideas or alternatives are available from the first recording of the Walton Viola Concerto that might inspire performance?
1.2 Motivation
The Walton Viola Concerto is one of the most famous and recognized compositions in the viola repertoire. Apart from this, it is a compulsory piece in any viola orchestra audition. The motivation for choosing this theme comes from the need to explore beyond the score one of the most important and representative works for this instrument. In order to achieve an ideal interpretation of this composition, in this research, the first two recordings made of the Walton Concerto are investigated, as both represent different versions of the piece with several differences between them. These recordings are by Frederick Riddle in 1937, which was the first one made, and by the famous violist William Primrose in 1946. Both were conducted by the composer William Walton himself.
Exploring performance practice through old recordings can be a great stimulus and inspiration to violists who want to play this wonderful Concerto. Here, they will find tools to shape their own musical interpretation of the piece. It will also be quite useful for me since I am going to play this piece accompanied by an orchestra in the coming months.
1.3 Methods
First of all, I collected books, theses, and articles of academic relevance through libraries or Internet databases to establish context. In order to carry out this work, secondary sources were essential to help me find background information. Compiling the existing information written to date on this topic and contrasting it will allow us to discover the background of this fantastic Concerto.
Then, I listened to the first two recordings made of this Concerto, dated 1937 and 1946, and a number of questions came up such as: Can details heard in these old recordings inspire performance nowadays? Or, do we have anything to learn from these versions?
As a result of these recordings, I drew up a list mentioning the differences found between them. I classified these differences into different categories such as bowings, fingerings, different notes and registers, orchestration, and so on. Thereafter, I recorded myself playing both versions of some passages. Especially making these recordings was very useful for me, as I had a clearer idea of my interpretation and what I wanted to do. To conclude, obviously the most important part of this research is my own subjective reflections, experiences, and feelings.
In short, the focus of this research is the practice process of the piece, my preparation for my performance. Therefore, it is about my artistic process, consequently subjective, expounding what I like and what I do not like, to create an artistic choice. My research aims to decide what details or alternatives I can recover from these recordings to inspire my own interpretation. At the same time, find out what ideas from the first recording are reflected in the second one.
1.4 The shaping of a musical interpretation
As previously mentioned, the main goal of this research is to achieve an optimal performance of the Concerto, but this path is subjective and unique to each musician. The creative process of forging a musical interpretation is long and complex. Each musician has a different way, context, and knowledge of achieving his or her musical interpretation. In turn, we all have our own reflections, emotions and feelings, intuition, body movements, extra-musical supports, and other tools. All this compendium of elements generates new musical ideas and a personal and individualistic musical interpretation.
“Musicians must play what is written in the score and respect both stylistic norms and instrument-associated norms. Yet to offer an expert, artistic interpretation, the musician must also strive for novelty and originality in his or her musical interpretation. Thus, creativity in music interpretation may be described as the ability to follow musical and social norms while still proposing an original interpretation: to combine the expected and the unexpected1”.
In this case, creativity plays a fundamental role in the musician, who has to be able to ask himself questions that answer his musical concerns. Perhaps using subjective language or images of what a passage or a work suggests to the person.
“An artistic appropriation phase during which the musician develops an artistic image of the work and seeks to express that image via an exploration of musical character, dynamics, tone, and phrasing. In this stage, the musician seeks a feeling of expressive precision and balance in his or her playing2”.