The Viola Column: New tunes on an old viola v11 n3
Rivka Golani is a musical phenomenon about to take the world by its ears.
Annette Morreau reports.
Not to be outdone by the pop boys, the British recording industry last July started publishing a Classical Records Chart. Since July, three recordings of one piece – the Elgar cello concerto – have stayed in the top ten, two by the late Jacqueline du Pre and one by Julian Lloyd Webber.
Now, another version is to be released in April by Conifer that seems destined to send shivers down the spine. For this is no ordinary recording; it is not even played on the cello. This new disc heralds the first recording of Elgar’s cello concerto arranged for viola over 60 years ago by the great virtuoso violist, Lionel Tertis.
Virtuoso viola players are a very rare breed. Because of acoustic and physical problems relating to the range of the viola – one octave higher than the cello – few great instruments have been made, few composers have written for the instrument, and few great players have emerged.
But in less than a decade, it seems that the viola is experiencing a renaissance – or perhaps “naissance.” Two or three important performers have emerged – the Soviet player Yuri Bashmet, Kim Kashkashian from the US, and perhaps the finest of them all, Rivka Golani.
Rivka Golani is not just one of the finest viola players alive; she is a phenomenon. Her shock of red hair, green eyes, deep heavily-accented voice, and wry sense of humour, command attention. It is no surprise that John Kehoe for Conifer Records, on a chance encounter in Switzerland, should have been bowled over by her playing. It is not surprising that following her first recording, made within a year of their meeting – Martinu’s Rhapsody-Concerto for viola and orchestra – Kehoe should have selected Golani to make the world premier recording of the Elgar concerto.*
Golani is Israeli. She began playing the violin at seven, and not until 21 did she switch to the viola. In a typical show of determination she confronted her teacher: “Viola or maths?” she threatened. Equally gifted in mathematics and as a painter, she could have chosen a different path.
While still a student, Golani played with the Tel Aviv Chamber Ensemble and the Israel Philharmonic. In 1969, while on tour in the United States, she looked for her own instrument. She found a viola made by Otto Erdesz she wanted but could not afford – not least because of the weakness of the Israeli currency. Two months later, at the end of the tour, she returned to the dealer “half-size”; she had literally starved to pay for the viola.
In 1972, on a further visit to New York to buy an instrument for use by the Israel Philharmonic she met Erdesz, who six months later pursued her to Israel, demanding that she marry him. She did. He was almost twice her age and the marriage did not survive the strains of two people possessed by their work commitments. “The best part was that we produced a very unusual son who has inherited a lot from both of us,” says Rivka Golani.
Golani is a champion of new music, and composers across the world have flocked to write more than 70 works for her, including 13 concertos. “I feel that I am part of creating a new repertoire for the viola. It is very exciting and I enjoy not being limited to the standard repertoire. But I hate to be put into a box because it is absolutely not the right picture of my work; one who cannot play Mozart, Schubert or Bach cannot be a champion of any sort of music including contemporary music.”
She has played triumphantly with the world’s great orchestras, including, in 1984, the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Invited to play the Walton concerto at the last night of the Proms, she arrived uninformed about the special nature of the occasion. “What a shock. I went out on the platform, and there were … 100 conductors!” With the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, she gave the North American premiere of Penderecki’s Viola concerto, under his direction.
In the last year she has married the conductor, Thomas Sanderling (son of the distinguished conductor, Kurt Sanderling), moved to a new life in London, bought a house, settled her son at his public school, and somehow coped with the quirks of British life.
For Golani, recording the Elgar was a deeply spiritual event. It took a mere three hours. She says she felt the presence of Jacqueline du Pre all round her. Golani cannot talk about du Pre without tears coming to her eyes, as I saw when she met Christopher Nupen, the maker of the celebrated television documentary about du Pre. For Golani this recording can be nothing else but an expression of grief for the loss of so fine an artist, colleague and human being.
Elgar Cello Concerto, the Tertis arrangement for Viola, Conifer CDCF 171 £11.99 compact disc, £6.99 black disc and cassette, with Rivka Golani (viola), the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conductor Vernon Handley.