This week, Utah Symphony Principal Violist, Brant Bayless, will perform two important works for Viola and Orchestra. Join the Utah Symphony in Park City on Wednesday night for Hindemith’s Kammermusik No. 5, and Holst’s Lyric Movement!
Hear Brant’s thoughts on this rare viola event below:
You are performing two rarely heard works for viola and orchestra – what led you to choose this repertoire?
I was initially asked to play the Holst Lyric Movement because 2024 is the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth. It’s a wonderful but shorter work, so there was time available in the program for something “fun” too! There’s always some negotiating back and forth when choosing repertoire, and my first suggestion (a concerto by living Japanese composer Dai Fujikura) was shot down, but somewhat surprisingly they loved the idea of this completely bonkers Hindemith concerto
What sets these works apart in the world of viola literature?
The Hindemith was written for his own performing, and he played it over 75 times throughout his career. It’s the first of his big works for solo viola and orchestra, and he considered it his calling card…LITERALLY. The first two bars in his handwritten manuscript are featured on his own business card! Employing all his virtuosic ideas as a composer and master of the instrument, it really seems tailored to wow audiences and contemporary critics. The Holst Lyric Movement was written for Lionel Tertis, and although quiet and contemplative on the surface is tightly constructed and has passages that require the virtuosity and command of the entire range of the instrument that Tertis was known for.
Is there any connection or relationship between these works or their composers?
Only tangentially, as far as I know…but if we remember that Hindemith actually played the first performance of William Walton’s Viola Concerto, and notice that the harmonies employed in the second movement of Kammermusik (particularly in the closing measures!) are also used in Walton’s concerto from just a couple years later, I do project a kinship between Hindemith and English music of the era in general.
What is your process like to prepare for a concerto performance? In particular, is there anything about either of these unique works that led you to approach the process differently?
I’d always heard OF the Kammermusik as a dauntingly difficult work, and I love trying my hand at difficult music. I did give it a listen when we were selecting repertoire just to make sure I wasn’t signing myself up for something truly unpleasant, but all the while through the learning process I have purposefully avoided listening to what I am sure is a phenomenal recording by Tabea Zimmerman. I’ve been telling friends and colleagues that I wanted to make “my own bad decisions without being influenced by others.” Similarly with the Holst, the last time I’ve heard a performance was when Scott St. John played it on an Utah Symphony concert during Keith Lockhart’s tenure.
Learning music from the score, sitting at the piano and fumbling through piano reductions to get an idea how the parts fit together, feels so delightfully disconnected from the era of being able to conjure up something with the click of the internet! I love learning music this way, it just feels so old-school!
Do you have any pre-concert rituals to get you into the “zone”?
A good short bike ride is good to the blood flowing, but mostly life can’t really stop to let me have any sort of ideal ritual. Slow calm practicing with emphasis on mental focus is key for the warm up before walking on stage!
