FOCUS ON THE VIOLA
Ensemble 360
Upper Chapel, Sheffield
Friday 8 December 2023, 1.00pm / 7.00pm
Tickets:
£16
£10 UC, PIP & DLA
£5 Students & Under 35s

VIEUXTEMPS Viola Sonata (23’)
CLARKE Viola Sonata (25’)
From one of the earliest works for viola and piano to one of the best loved: Vieuxtemps’s expressive and virtuosic sonata showcases the rich and sonorous tone of the instrument while the passionate and emotional expression of Rebecca Clarke’s hauntingly beautiful meditation concludes with a dramatic final movement.
Rachel Roberts is one of this country’s finest viola players, and in this concert she pairs two great works for her instrument; her appearance in the opening concert of Sheffield Chamber Music Festival 2022 was described by The Spectator as ‘fiendish’ yet also ‘the most fun two string players could have together’. With the same joy and passion, here she presents two contrasting works that bring this mellifluous instrument and her phenomenal artistry to the fore.
Please note, the free POST-CONCERT TALK with Leah Broad, author of Quartet, has moved to 2pm.
Please contact Jenny Davies, marketing@musicintheround.co.uk if you have any queries about an existing booking.
2.00pm POST-CONCERT TALK Free
Ticket holders are invited to stay for a talk by Leah Broad, author of Quartet, which features the biographies of four female composers including Rebecca Clarke.
VIEUXTEMPS Henri, Viola Sonata
Maestoso – Allegro
Barcarolla. Andante con moto
Finale Scherzando. Allegretto
The Belgian violin virtuoso and composer Henri Vieuxtemps was also an outstanding viola player and he composed his Viola Sonata in 1860. The first performance was given on 21 January 1861 in London, at the St James’s Hall, played by Vieuxtemps with the distinguished English pianist Arabella Goddard (famous, among other things, for giving the first public performance in London of Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata). The performance was reviewed in The Musical World whose critic praised ‘M. Vieuxtemps’s mastery of the viola’ and expressed the view that ‘of the three movements, the Andante in G minor (Barcarolla) created the most marked impression’ and noted that ‘the difficulties presented by the whole work are such that none but a performer of the first class should attempt it.’
Several more performances quickly followed including one at the Hanover Square Rooms (15 February 1861) and another at the St James’s Hall on 15 April, this time with Charles Hallé as Vieuxtemps’s pianist. The work was first heard in Brussels a few weeks later and when the sonata was published in 1862, it carried a dedication to King George V of Hanover, a music-loving cousin of Queen Victoria.
© Nigel Simeone