Sonata for Viola and Piano
Composer: Hartwig Riedl
Instrument: Viola and Piano
Level: Intermediate/Advanced
Published: 2023
Price: €25.00
Item details
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Description +
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This sonata was written in the summer of 1958 for the final musical examination of my class at Bismarck-Schule (public school) in Hamburg, Germany, which ensued in the following November in a public performance. Beside the violin I had, it is true, been playing also the viola for some time; but here, I took to the piano and a classmate of mine – normally first violin in our string-quartet – to the viola. Luckily, a young teacher owned one of these early tape-recorders, so there exists a musical document of this event.
In order to show off the wonderful low register of the viola, I started the Adagio with the lowest tone of the instrument followed by four notes upwards “undisturbed” by any accompaniment. The final Presto again begins in the low register, followed by lively upward steps sporting the ambit of the instrument, only to show in the high register its lyrical qualities. This principal motive then descends, in the piano, with a series of stressed suspensions, which is a tribute to the final suspension in Schubert’s Quintet in C-major, which since those days has been one of my great favourites and whose ending is literally echoed in the ending of this sonata. Hartwig Riedl
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Instrumentation +
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Viola and Piano
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About the composer +
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Hartwig Riedl was born in Hamburg in 1940. In his youth he received piano and violin lessons and composed several chamber music pieces and a parodic cantata.
In addition to his job as a high school teacher for foreign languages, he has always dealt intensively with music, playing as a violist in various ensembles in Hamburg. His compositions now comprise, among others, two cycles for soprano and piano, two suites for string orchestra, three pieces for larger symphonic orchestra and most recently a set of six sonatas for alto recorder and piano.
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Credits +
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Front Cover graphics: Nicola Lee
Engraving: Thomas M. J. Schäfer
Printed in Copenhagen, Denmark
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www.editionsviJer.com
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