JAVS Spring 2014

I N R EVIEW : T HE 41 ST I NTERNATIONAL V IOLA C ONGRESS , A CADEMY OF M USIC , K RAKÓW , P OLAND , S EPTEMBER 11–15, 2013

I. Performances

The opening ceremony featured members of the IVS Presidency (Louise Lansdown, Carlos María Solare, and Max Savikangas) along with two Polish violists: Stefan Kamasa, one of the honorees of this year’s congress, and host Bogusława Hubisz-Sielska, per forming the Czech composer Anton Wranitzky’s five-part Cassatio , arranged by Tom Tatton, which had also been featured at the 39th congress in Germany in 2011.

From left to right: Stefan Kamasa, Louise Lansdown, Max Savikangas, Carlos María Solare, and Bogusława Hubisz-Sielska perform at the opening of the 41st International Viola Congress (all photos courtesy of Dwight Pounds)

by Andrew Filmer

Concerts not only featured a nod to Polish composi tions but also included a link to the Benjamin Britten centennial. Two major events were held in the gilded Florianka Concert Hall, including a per formance of Britten’s Lachrymae by Andra Darzins with the Sinfonietta Cracovia. Lech Bałaban and Nokuthula Ngwenyama also performed with the orchestra under the baton of Robert Kabara, playing concertos by Marek Stachowski and Krzysztof Penderecki, respectively. The performances by all three soloists were warmly received. Darzins also per formed in recital format the day before, sharing the stage with Kim Kashkashian.

Prefacing the presentation of the Gold Alto Clef to David Dalton—only the second in the history of the International Viola Society—Dwight Pounds asked us to look around the room and see the connections to our fellow violists, in renewing old friendships and building new ones. In a sense, that encapsulated a theme of the 41st International Viola Congress: connections, not only in collegiality, but also in building on past developments in the viola world and in linking pedagogy, composition, research, and performance. This review aims to look at each of these aspects in turn.

V OLUME 30 NUMBER 1 11