JAVS Fall 1998

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the wrong ones. You have to follow the dynamics very closely and the phrasings, and you need to invent fingerings that suit the passage. There are all sorts of differences compared to playing a well-known piece. I still make changes in the well-known pieces-! change my fingerings in the Walton Concerto, the Hindemith Concerto, the Bartok Concerto. I am still experimenting-which is good. I see stu dents who do things they shouldn't, but then I like some of the things that they do. I say, "That's a very good fingering, very good. I don't use it, but it sounds good, so use it." Morgan: I have known of accomplished musicians who have avoided performing the Rochberg Sonata because of its difficulty. What did you find challenging about this piece? de Pasquale: Well, if you play Rochberg's tempo marks, it is not easy. Some people slow down if it is too difficult. You have to have technique, naturally, to perform it. If you don't, I don't think you should perform it. One should not play it slower than it should be, because if it is played slower, it lacks brilliance. You cannot play it on the slow side. Both the technique and the musicality are challenging. It has to be played very musically, very expressively. There are strange and large intervals that require wide leaps, plus a brilliant technique. But it was wonderful going through this piece, bowing and fingering it. I found the thought of it very challenging because I imagined Rochberg was going to write music of the Rochberg years ago. But this music was much different than that earlier period. Morgan: Yes. I actually discovered that in doing my research. He went through three phases. In this last phase he is calling for a rebirth of tonal harmonies. de Pasquale: That's right. This work is very tonal. There are some striking harmonies, but, on the whole, it is very melodic and beautiful. I still play it and use it often as it is a wonderful contribution to the viola repertoire. It was a wonderful day, that day I premiered it. Primrose was in the audience and it was overwhelming. A new piece and Primrose on the front row. He wrote me a beautiful note on the music ... "To my very dear Joe. Many thanks for a moving and great performance. William Primrose." Morgan: That is a treasure. de Pasquale: Yes it is. You won't get that signature any more. And there is a very nice in scription by David Dalton, who had a lot to do with having the work commissioned ... "I was deeply touched by this performance." That is very complimentary from another viola player. ROCHBERG'S AESTHETICS George Rochberg's writings are prolific, with some of the main aesthetic points summarized here. In the 1970s George Rochberg emerged as an influential figure in American music, both as a journalist and as a composer. His essays explore aesthetic problems and his musical works reflect engagements with major aesthetic issues. Rochberg's music in the late 1940s resembled Stravinsky's, Hindemith's and Bartok's (espe cially in the Capriccio and the First String Quartet). In the 1950s he adopted twelve-tone seri alism and felt his imagination liberated. At this time Rochberg perceived serialism to be the cul mination of historical developments and felt that its strict parameters gave him freedom. Works stemming from this time include the Twelve Bagatelles for piano, the Chamber Symphony and the Symphony No. 2. 3 Growing dissatisfied with atonal serialism, Rochberg took a decidedly different direction in the early 1960s:

The freedom I had felt in 1952 turned into a trap by 1963. I saw serialism as a means of pro jecting only the strange peripheral areas of human feeling while the old music now seemed to cover the central core of it. 4