JAVS Spring 2014

that Poland had to wait till the Romantic era for its first dedicated viola work: Henryk Wieniawski’s Reverie in 1858–59. The World War II era had an impact on cultural life as a whole, and from 1956 onward, modern styles were incorporated into com positions, with Stanisławska noting the “exposition of characteristic viola timbres” at this point in histo ry. It was particularly interesting during the lecture to realize the number of major works that were writ ten for or premiered by Stefan Kamasa.

ogy (for scores), new recording options, iPads (used as a music stand with Bluetooth foot pedals), and a “virtual accompanist”—with the potential to follow a student, providing the full harmonic context from early lessons. Danny Keasler, currently at Mahidol University, brought greetings from Thailand, where he has recently formed the Thai Viola Society. He illustrated the benefits of Alfred Uhl’s études in hav ing as much melodic value for students as purely technical facility. Dwight Pounds chimed in, label ing Uhl as “one of us,” thanks to his pivotal histori cal role in the Internationale-Viola Forschungsgesellschaft (“The Viola Research Society”), which preceded the IVS. Dr. Pounds found himself in the unexpected posi tion of facilitating a session on William Primrose that had been scheduled for David Dalton, due to an unfortunate accident that left the eminent scholar unable to travel from Geneva. A video of Dalton interviewing Primrose generated a discussion on whether Primrose’s comment that violinists should not impede on the territory of violists remains valid today. Pounds noted certain observations from his own lessons with the legendary performer and ended the session with a demonstration of Primrose’s “silent finger exercises.” There were several notable master classes, all by vio lists who presented recitals elsewhere in the congress. Pierre-Henri Xuereb combined these into a single session. Working with student Oskar Foremuy dur ing the master class portion, Xuereb reflected that his approach has a focus on the importance of find ing the optimal place for the position of the left thumb. Jerzy Kosmala’s master class provided a par ticularly in-depth approach, often dealing with the tone quality of a single note, emphasizing that over flexibility in the wrist at the expense of the natural movement of the arm can have a negative impact. Andra Darzins allocated time toward addressing how one’s overall performance style can better connect the performer to the audience. She had particularly interesting technical advice in playing on the right III. Pedagogy

Dorata Stanisławska surveys Polish viola music

Błażej Maliszewski displayed a wide array of skills, from performing seven of his arrangements of works by Grażyna Bacewicz entirely from memory—no small feat—to a lecture on his years-long work in translating S. P. Poniatowski’s book Viola: Art and Heritage from Russian to Polish. One senior delegate noted that this might open a pathway for sources that up to now have been exclusively available in Russia. Two American violists bridged research with peda gogy in their lectures. Matthew Daline brought us into the twenty-first century with an exploration of technological developments, including “timeline” databases (for historical information), cloud technol

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