JAVS Fall 1997

46

In closing I pay tribute to a truly remark able man whose role in rhe history of the Bartok Viola Concerto has been very under stated to rhe point of almost total neglect. This understatement, while ir reflects rhe modesty of Fisch, must now be rectified and

and pruning the trees and picking the fruit things way beyond what I was up ro, since my trees were only three feet high! One must realize that avocado trees do not produce dur ing the first five years. Bur I kept going every year ro learn these new things and became an expert! " Fisch stopped playing

the viola community needs ro be made aware rhar we have here an international treasure, a man who was in the very heart of rhe cir cumstances of the Viola Concerto berween Bar tok's death in 1945 and the first public per formance by William Primrose with the Minneapolis Symphony 0 rchestra in 1949. Burton Fisch's rendi tion should stand as the only interpretion influ enced exclusively by his own instincts and those ofTibor Serly.

viola totaHy from 1968 until 1986, almost eigh teen years larer. It was on the occasion of his father's ninetieth birth day that, after some prodding from his sec ond wife Ena, he agreed ro bring the viola our of mothballs. His father had nor heard him play since he moved out of his house as a teenager. Erra recalls this performance bringing rears ro the eyes of his five granddaugh ters who had never heard him play. "I starred practicing, and once I got back in

Burton Fisch

Donald Maurice teaches viola and violin at the Conservatorium ofMusic at Massey University in New Zealand. He chaired the recent debate on the Bartok Viola Concerto at the International Viola Congress in Austin. He recently completed a Ph.D. examin ing the full history ofthe Viola Concerto and is currently preparing this materialfor publication as a book.

shape, I didn't want ro give it up anymore." Since retiring Fisch has become very in volved in chamber music, attending a sum mer workshop every year in San Diego and Claremont, California. He also plays with a community orchestra and arranges music for viola solo and various ensembles, with the aid of his Macintosh and Finale sofrware.

The musical insert "Einsam" by Fritz Becker appears on pages 47-53 by courtesy of Marcus Thompson, New England Conservatory, as a gift to the Primrose International Viola Archive.