Special Arrangements

Schumann: Works for Viola and Piano. Paul Neubauer, viola; Anne-Marie McDermott, piano. (Image Recordings IRC0501)

Type "viola player" into Google and three out of the first five hits you get are viola jokes, even though soloists of the caliber of Paul Neubauer make this well-worn genre of musical comedy, well, a bit tired. Neubauer was just 21 when the New York Philharmonic hired him, making him the youngest principal string player in the orchestra's history. Today he performs with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and is a busy soloist. The Juilliard faculty member and alumnus (B.M. '82, M.M. '83) has often explored the outer reaches of repertoire for his instrument, championing viola arrangements of works like the Brahms Clarinet Trio or a J. S. Bach viola da gamba sonata, for instance.

In this collection, he teams up with the like-minded pianist Anne-Marie McDermott to perform viola arrangements of Robert Schumann's miniatures for horn, oboe, and cello. As the disc's liner notes explain, classical music has a long tradition of works appropriated from one instrument's literature for another. Many of these arrangements bring out new qualities in the music. The Romances, Op. 94, originally conceived for oboe and piano, sound like they were tailored for the viola as Neubauer brings a dark lyricism to Schumann's rich and expressive melodies. From the same year (1849), the Adagio and Allegro, Op. 70, was originally for the newly developed valve horn. What it misses in the horn-like brashness of the original it gains in dusky-toned refinement.

Neubauer and McDermott show the greatest emotional range in Schumann's Fünf Stücke im Volkston, Op. 102 ("Five Pieces in the Popular Style"), miniatures composed for a cellist in the Leipzig Gewandhaus orchestra. Its playful outer movements suggest the character of German pub songs and Neubauer delivers some lusty accents in the rollicking "Mit Humor" movement. Finally, in the Märchenbilder, Op. 113 ("Fairytale Pictures"), written for viola and piano, Neubauer is back on home turf, bringing wit and grace to one of Schumann's few solo pieces written originally for viola.



An Affinity for Mackey

Steven Mackey: Interior Design. Curtis Macomber, violin, et al. (Bridge 9183)

Curtis Macomber's musical tastes have long leaned towards the adventurous, modern, and unusual. Before becoming a Juilliard faculty member, he earned a D.M.A. in 1978 from the School, where he studied violin with Joseph Fuchs. Macomber was a longtime member of the New York New Music Ensemble, and since 1991 he has played in the new-music ensemble Speculum Musicae. While he often takes on the thorniest modernists—including Carter, Davidovsky, Perle, and Wuorinen—he also has an affinity for the music of Steven Mackey, a Princeton composer and electric guitarist whose music incorporates elements of rock and the blues.

Those influences are particularly heard in the bluesy opening movement of his Sonata for Violin and Piano. Macomber bends pitches with abandon, occasionally suggesting Hendrix-like guitar wails and Coplandesque hoedown music. Interior Design for solo violin plays out like a series of riffs, some jazzy, some rock-based, and still others traditionally classical in inspiration. Mackey points out in the liner notes that Macomber has likely played more of his works than any other single performer, and it shows in this virtuosic performance.

Finally there is Humble River for flute, violin, viola, and cello. Mackey conceived his 30-minute piece as a flowing musical stream. Between its five parts, he suggests that the four Mozart Flute Quartets could be performed, which then become "islands" the audience visits along the way. One certainly hears Mozart's influence, although the flurries of notes and moments of astringent harmony clearly make this a contemporary work. Macomber and his colleagues turn in a blazing performance.



Mention this column at the Juilliard Bookstore to receive a 5-percent discount on this month's featured recordings. (In-store purchases only.)

Brian Wise is a producer at WNYC radio and writes about music for The New York Times, Time Out New York, Opera News, and other publications.