JAVS Fall 2003

full century after its inception. The concerto is a very solid composition and was beautifully and convincingly perfo rmed by Maurice, perhaps one of irs finest interpreters as he com bined sensitivity and nuance with a variety of demanding technical demands. Alfred Hill's Sonara in B Minor (1891) was written in rhe Romantic German style but featured distinct Maori tunes. Maurice's second recital featured the viola and guitar combina tion, with his countryman, Mathew Marshall, on guitar. The program was a combinat ion of the familiar and not so fami liar, including arrangements of Schubert's Arpeggione and Villa Lobos' Bachianas Brasileiras #5 for viola and guitar. Not so famili ar were Miyagi Michio's Haru No Umi (Sea in Spring), a

ing pizzicato and arco lines played simultaneously. Vater Komidas' Armenian Songs was perhaps the most exotic, with Schulkowsky employing numer ous instruments and techniques to augment the Armenian scales and tonalities. Marin Marais' La Folia Variations concluded the program. The percussionist had the advan tage of mo tion-the audience sat somewhat transfixed as the bare footed Schulkowsky seemed to gracefully and effortlessly levitate from drum to cymbal to tam tam. Her total absorption (sans emoting) in the task at hand was also rather hypno tic and the audience simply could not keep their eyes off of her despite their devotion to the violist. In later programs Kashkashian was joined by Sebastian Krunn ies in a performance of Bela Bartok's Duos for Two Violas and she concluded her Viola Fest appear ance in performing Still, by T homas Larcher, with the Moscow Soloists and German Youth Philharmonic. If personal involvement was the most telling criterion, this con gress would be known quite sim ply as the DONALD MAU RICE CONGRESS, wirh rwo recitals and rwo lectures to his credit. New Zealand composer Anthony Ritchie's Viola Concerto was marked by fre quent occurrences of jazz ele ments, showing the staying power and abi li ty of this unique ly American musical form to influence non-American music a

transcription of a piece originally for koto , and Astor Piazzolla's Caft (1930) with enticing move ment subtitles as "Nightclub," "Bordello," and "History of the Tango." Donald Maurice combines h is considerable playing skills with very effective scholarship. In suc ceeding lecmres he introduced to a much-traveled, 19th cenmry (and pre-Terris) British violist named Michael Balling, who studied music in Leipzig and at various rimes in his career had residence in New Zealand, Brazil and Korea. Maurice's second lec ture, "Swansong-The Remarkable Story of Bar tok's Viola Concerto," was a book preview dealing wi th his on going research into the concerto. Reserve your copy now-I pre dict it soon will become one of the staples of the violist 's library. B

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