Belgique and Voglar talk about playing Mozart and their upcoming concert with the Columbia Symphony
Thursday, January 19th, 2012by James Bash on April 26, 2010
Photo by Charles Noble A bit of cross pollination will take place this Friday (April 30th) when two members of the Oregon Symphony will be featured as soloists in a concert by the Portland Columbia Symphony Orchestra with Huw Edwards conducting. The Oregon Symphony’s principal violist Joël Belgique and his wife, Oregon Symphony violinist Inés Voglar, will perform Mozart’s “Sinfoinia Concertante” with the Portland Columbia Symphony. Belgique and Voglar are also members of the Fear No Music ensemble of which Voglar is the artistic director. I met Belgique and Voglar in downtown Portland when they were taking their lunch hour break during rehearsals for this past weekend’s concerts with the Oregon Symphony. They gave me the lowdown on their upcoming performance with the Columbia Symphony. Have you played the Sinfonia Concertante before? Belgique: We have done it together in a recital with piano not too long ago. Voglar: But you’ve done it with Peter and the Oregon Symphony. Belgique: Yes, with Peter Frajola and the orchestra in a classical subscription series. Voglar: I’ve played it a long time ago in Venezuela with the Carabobo Symphony. Do you practice this music together? Belgique: Never! [Laughs] Voglar: We’ve been practicing our own parts separately, but we’ve found time – despite our teaching schedules – to work on the piece together. Belgique: It’s fun to play through the piece in a practicing style – slowly – working on intonation, balance issues. We just keep working on it over again and again, and it’s a lot of fun! Of course, we have little “moments” here and there because we have different ideas about the music. Voglar: Oh yeah! [Laughs] But we usually work it out! Towards the end of the first movement, the orchestra stops and there are some big solos that you both have to play. Are you doing Mozart’s cadenzas or something different? Belgique: There are a couple of options available, but Mozart wrote these great cadenzas that we will be performing. There are other options out there, that are a little fringe. I was always intrigued by a cadenza first heard in school. It was a recording from the 1920s that featured Lionel Tertis, who was one of the first violists to be known internationally, and Albert Sammons on violin. They did their own cadenza, and it sounded really cool. It’s very Romantic, flashy, and non-Mozarty. A few years back I was given a copy of the score, and it’s for a viola tuned in D major, which is the wrong key for us for my viola. What do you mean? Belgique: Mozart wrote the piece in E flat, but wanted the solo violist to tune their viola up a half-step. That would be mean that when you play an open D it would sound as an E-flat. It also means learning the entire piece with completely different fingerings. Voglar: D major has a lot of open strings, and this trick works well for period instruments because the viola has a hard time being heard, especially with the gut strings that were used back then. Belgique: E flat is a horrible key for viola. Voglar: E flat is fine for violins hollister , but for viola tuned up, there are many overtones and the strings ring more naturally. Belgique: So Mozart, being a genius, this was a really cool idea. Nowadays, with modern strings and instruments that need to project back to the cheap seats of a 3000-plus seat hall, it should work. I hope Mozart doesn’t mind.
Read more of the interview with classical musiciansBelgique and Volgar.
