JAVS Fall 2003

range of which we have never dreamed and which is simply sit ting there ready to be explored and manipulated by a creative and adventurous mind. Garth Knox is to the viola what Puck is to Shakespeare and the aurora borealis is to nature. Beware all who enter this world... it is not one of Bach, Brahms and Beethoven-not even of Bartok, Berg or Berlioz, though the unrestrained imagina tion of the latter certainly deserves acknowledgement in this context. Those who make this journey must either put aside any previously held concepts regard ing melodic and harmonic beauty and viola tone or allow those that they have nourished over short lifetimes to expand and grow in new and delightful directions. It is an adventure not for the faint of heart or the narrow mind, which is to say that it probably is ideal for most violists. It glistens and glitters, it sparkles and sings, and it dances delightfully. Such adventures should be entered with forethought and an expectation of insights into another musical dimension ... and at every possible opportunity. Such is the world according to Garth Knox. Then there is Henrik Frendin, the affable Swede, who combines tra ditional tunes, a thorough knowl edge of computer language, improvisation, a five-string elec trical instrument, and application of any other creative idea that might appeal to him at a given moment. In Crying Angles and Licks ofFabio, both for viola and

in Minneapolis. These congresses are too wonderful to miss! I hope

afternoon and late evening pro grams during the congress.

to see you next June at the University of Minnesota!

The 2003 Viola Fest opened not in Kronberg but in Frankfurt at the Alte Oper Frankfurt, the city's old opera house. The build ing was restored as a 1000-plus capacity concert hall following the WWII bombing which destroyed its interior. The sell-out crowd, the largest I have ever seen in attendance at a viola con cert, opened the celebration in marvelous fashion. Ensuing recitals and concerts were pre sented in the Stadthalle and the Johanniskirche, or St. Johns Church. The latter, still an active parish church, exuded grace and old world charm in an adequate but fairly tight space and provid ed the most formal atmosphere for concerts in Kronberg, being used for late evening concerts during the Viola Fest. Welcome to the world of Garth Knox. His is one in which Puck, probability curves, kaleidoscopes, and/or many other normally non musical entities exist on an almost continual basis and work their impromptu magic. Any part of the viola or viola d' amore is fair game to Knox-either side of the bridge, the area berween the instrument top and the strings where only Peter Schickele might consider to venture, and that ethereal layer of physical sound just above what we mortal violists consider focused, fat and full viola sound that hides a harmonic The Performers

The Kronberg Kongress: Some Observations by Dwight Pounds

The Facilities

Kronberg's Stadthalle was a mod ern but somewhat Spartan struc ture with none of the heavily ornamented Baroque stone work or Rococo paint and plaster one frequently associates with German concert halls. It featured a vaulted ceiling and good acoustics; it comfortably accom modated 400 guests and, to everyone's delight, it was air con ditioned. The Stadthalle was cen trally located, offered easy access to area hotels and restaurants, and was used primarily for morn ing presentations. The Zehntscheune was an intriguing old building two city blocks removed which consisted of thick stone walls, a brick floor, and massive beamed rough-hewn tim bers that had been precisely cut, joined and fit together with pins in a style of joinery known only today by a very few master builders of barns. Its suitability as a recital hall was marginal at best-seating was limited and on benches, the space confined, and when the doors were closed to prevent outside noise intrusion, the room became very warm and stuffy in the unexpectedly hot 2003 summer. It was used for

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN VIOLA SOCIETY 28