Easy to play concerts
Newly published viola concertos by Telemann and Vanhal, with solo parts that move up to the 3rd register.
Telemann's chamber music double concerto for two violas accompanied by a third viola is a good opportunity for group lessons. As the composer was a friend of Bach, who was working in Weimar at the time, when he wrote this concerto in Eisenach, he placed four chorale-like columns with B-A-C-B in the upper voice at the beginning of the G minor middle movement and was inspired by Vivaldi's chromatic expressiveness in the subsequent Adagio. The two outer movements in B flat major are easy to play - only up to the 3rd position - and are well placed. Continuo score and bass part complete the edition.
With this realization of a cello concerto, Johann Baptist Vaňhal (1739-1813, Czech: Jan Křtitel Vaňhal) took a stand against the stepmotherly treatment of the viola at the time. The cheerfully animated concerto is of medium difficulty and only requires 1st to 3rd position for the solo part. The fingerings are good, but unnecessarily copious. The cadenzas created by the editor are considerably more difficult than the solo part. They extend into the 6th position and use numerous double stops; they could be simplified. Overall, however, the new edition is a stroke of luck for viola players.
Georg Philipp Telemann: Concerto B-A-C-H for 2 solo violas, viola III (da braccio/da gamba) and b. c., reconstruction by Klaus Hofmann, EW 1013, € 17.50, Edition Walhall, Magdeburg 2016
Jan Křtitel Vaňhal: Concerto in C major for viola and orchestra, edited by Vilém Blažek, piano reduction and solo part, BA 11531-90, € 14.95, Bärenreiter, Prague 2016
