JAVS Summer 2000

F ROM THE IVS P RESIDE..'ICY: APRIL I PARIS

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Antoine Tammit and David Dalton shaki! hands.

passion, but professor of linguistics at the University of Rouen, was always close at hand to provide English translation for the "handi capped. " One of the few lectures that was translated from the podium, (English into French) was Tully Porter's instructive survey, aided by recordings of not-so-prominent vio lists of the early 20th century. The exception was a heretofore unreleased recording ofLionel Terris. Potter, the authority on the viola in sound recording, provided commentary and excerpts from a number of violists unfamiliar to me. The playing of Vieux and Herman Kolodkin made a special impression. Another British "ex-pat," Garth Knox, resident in Paris for a decade (and earlier associated with Boulez's studio) gave an illuminating lecture on deciphering and performing avanr-garde viola repertoire. He dissected the thorniest charts, practiced what he preached in playing convincingly, and made it all appear easy. Garth, "thou almost persuadeth ..." Prof. Hugh Macdonald, a Scotsman teach ing at Washington University in St. Louis, and

chief editor of the forthcoming Berlioz new edition, underscored in his lecture the compos er's particular affinity for the viola. This was fol lowed by a performance of the first movement of Harold in Italy by Michel Michalakakos and Claire Desert using the formidable and won derfully imaginative Liszt transcription. I was taken with the sensitive playing ofPierre Lenert and his pianist Jeff Cohen in pieces by Mazas (yes, Mazas) and Vieuxtemps. Other events addressed subjects related to lmherie and peda gogy. Ulrich Driiner and Frederic Laine, one following the other, reviewed the extensive original etude literature that is available to the viola teacher and student who are enterprising enough to explore beyond the usual transcrip tions from the violin literature. Drii.ner has assembled and annotated 100 original viola etudes from the 19th century in several vol umes as Das Studium der Viola, published by Barenreiter in 1982. Laine has edited multiple volumes of graded viola etudes that are avail able in publications of Gerard Billaudot. Through Laine's and other spoken references,