Viola Fest

The Auditorio de Tenerife, as part of its Chamber Music Cycle, offers a concert by Viola Fest.

 Viola Fest

This programme looks back in time to different musical periods through several performances of bowed string instruments: violin, viola and cello.

To this end, we will have Marco Rizzi, the winner of prestigious international competitions such as the Tchaikovsky and Queen Elizabeth, and professor of the Violin Chair at the Reina Sofía Higher School of Music in Madrid. Likewise, we will have Geneviève Laurenceau, professor of violin at the Higher Institute for Music Teaching 'Institut D´Enseignement Supérieur de la Musique Europe et Méditerranée', whose achievements include winning the fifth Le Violon de l´Adami competition and holding the position of artistic director of the Obernai Music Festival, created in 2009.

On the viola, we will have Nobuko Imai, a teacher at the Amsterdam Conservatory, the Kronberg Academy and the Reina Sofía Higher School of Music, and Macarena Pesutic, winner of the RWE Competition in Leipzig and of the Music Teachers National Association, and professor at the Higher Music Conservatory of the Canaries since 2005.

This stellar constellation of performers is completed with the cellist Enrico Bronzi, who performs with Trio di Parma and has taught at the Mozarteum University Salzburg since 2007.

The concert begins with three Fantasias for the Viols 1680 by Henry Purcell (1682-1695), composed in the summer of 1860. The first fantasia features several motifs marked by recurring syncopation in the second section. The second fantasia is a maze of complex modulations, colours and ritardandos, and the third is characterised by its polyphonic freedom and the repeated modification of its melodic and rhythmic structure.

The next work is Lament for Two Violas by Frank Bridge (1879-1941), composed and premiered in 1912. Celebrated for its intimate dialogue between the two instruments, it generates an atmosphere of melancholy, profound emotions and a dark timbre that adds to the work's reflective mood.

Next is Sonata for Violin and Cello, M.73 by Maurice Ravel (1875-1937), dedicated to Impressionist composer Claude Debussy. The first movement Allegro premiered in 1920 and was later developed to include the other three movements Très vif; Lent; and Vif, avec entrain; premiering in 1922. The work is based on two main themes and reflects the composer's interest in counterpoint and his preference for melody instead of the rejection of harmony.

After a brief pause, the concert concludes with String Quintet No.  2 in G Major, Op. 111 by Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), composed in 1890 and divided into four movements characterised by the hemiolas of Allegro non-troppo, ma con brio, a melancholic and bittersweet Adagio, the intermezzo of Un Poco Allegretto substituting the scherzo, and a nod to Hungarian Dances in the last movement Vivace ma non-troppo presto.

Lidia Bacallado Sastre