JAVS Spring 2011

Ms. Matthews has had a soft spot for violists since she was an undergraduate piano major at Oberlin, where she served as accompanist for Jeff Irvine’s viola studio. “I must have played with every violist in the school. I know I spent more time in viola les sons, other people’s viola lessons, than I did in my own piano lessons,” Ms. Matthews says, laughing. It’s because of this experience, she explains, that many of her friends are violists. In graduate school, Ms. Matthews met Helen Callus, to whom Dreams is dedicated. “Her sound was very much in my ear,” says Ms. Matthews, when asked about her inspiration for Dreams . “She’s an old friend, and I’ve loved her play ing ever since I first encountered it. She’s been sort of my image of the viola the whole time I was writ ing [ Dreams ]. I had her way of playing in mind [for] a lot of the passages and style; I’ve played with her enough that I have a real feel for how she does things. So I had her in mind, and I was hoping she would agree to play it when I finished it, and thank fully she did.”

If you have not heard it yet, Rachel Matthews’s Dreams is a beautiful collage of Romantic themes with an overlying contemporary feel. Its three move ments are written to contrast with each other. The first movement favors the viola’s darkly sweet, melodic register over the piano. In general, this movement is beautifully flowing, melodic, and tonal. The second movement is immediately different. It has a much quicker tempo and is filled with loud, deep, and discordant passages. The piano is allowed a much larger role than in the previous movement, and both instruments share a dialogue with one another. The third movement is the most modern of all. It returns to a more melodic and tonal center but reminds the audience that it is a twenty-first century piece. After the tonal theme for the movement is established, Ms. Matthews introduces a jarring twen ty-first century sound. Neither the viola nor the piano is specifically favored as they were in the pre vious movements. They share more of a general con versation throughout the entire movement. For

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