Spohr, Rolla and Kalliwoda are not names which trip immediately off the tongue, and yet all were famous violin virtuosi of their day. In a new CD, Vaughan Jones and Riad Chibah are exploring lesser known repertoire at the same time as exploring a less frequently used form: the violin and viola duo.
The form presents serious challenges for the composer. Unlike a solo piece, the duo cannot be a simple demonstration of an individual's virtuosity: rather, the musical range of a concerto or piano piece must be filled with just two instruments, neither of which, other than the occasional double-stop, can play chords. The three composers here all draw from a large toolbox of techniques to address the problem: in each case, a different one caught my ear. Spohr uses repeated arpeggios on the viola to give the piece a concerto-like feel, with the viola standing in for a whole orchestra. Rolla uses a more contrapuntal feel, often with the viola playing alternating notes in each of two lines to emulate two voices. Kalliwoda brings the two players together for a more harmonic approach. It seemed to me that all three pieces were very, very technically challenging to play (I'm not a string player, so I can't be categoric about this): Jones and Chibah certainly handle them with ease, precision and energy. Perhaps a little too much ease and energy: the Spohr is played at a frenetic pace, and (unusually) I found myself wondering what had happened to the "Moderato" in the first movement's tempo marking. Even the Adagio is moved along quite swiftly.