Viola joke

Caprice for solo Viola


Commentary
Recording
Videos
Related text
Download score

Commentary

In the spring of 2017, the Spanish violist Ana María Alonso asked me for a piece for solo viola for a CD made up of works by Spanish composers (Mario Carro, Carlos Perón, José María Sánchez Verdú, Miguel Bustamante, Gabriel Erkoreka, David del Puerto, Jesús Torres, Sebastián Mariné, Santiago Lanchares and myself), published by the IBS Classical label in November 2018 with the generic title of "Alto Mystic".
The proposal was accepted with pleasure, and I wanted to give it a casual air, and for this I resorted a second time (the first was in the form of an arrangement for nonet that, with the title of Paganini 24, I composed to serve as an "encore" in the concerts of the group de la National Youth Orchestra of Spain who participated in the Chamber Music Workshop held at the Prieuré Le Mesnil St. Martin -Montaut de Villeréal, France- in September 2013) to the theme with variations that constitutes the famous Caprice for solo violin no. 24 by Niccolò Paganini , favorite of important composers (Liszt, Brahms, Rachmaninov and Lutoslawsky) for the composition of new variations directly or indirectly based on those of the original Caprice.

The humorous intention of my "caprice" is clear from the title itself (Viola Joke), but as is logical it goes further from the very beginning of the piece, in which Paganini's theme is reproduced in a fragmented way and changing the key of the original A minor for a brilliant C major. From there, there are as many variations -eleven- as in the original Caprice, developing in each of them the most characteristic element of the former.

After the release of the CD, the first public performance of Viola joke took place at the Espacio Ronda in Madrid by its dedicatee, Ana María Alonso.

In April and June 2019 I made two transcriptions for cello and violin of the piece, with the titles Cello joke and Violin joke respectively. The violin version was premiered by Alba Signes at the "Óscar Esplá" Conservatory of Music in Alicante on February 25, 2020.

Recording

Recording: Ana María Alonso

Videos

Viola joke. Álvaro Gallego Chamber Hall od the Alicante Auditorium Alicante, March 26, 2024

Viola joke. Alejandro Bustamante Auditorium of the Faculty of Philosophy and Philology of the Complutense University Madrid, November 13, 2025, within the COMA'25 Festival of the Madrid Association of Composers

Related text

ALTO MYSTIC
By Luciano González Sarmiento
Notas for the booklet of the CD Alto Mystic, by Ana María Alonso (IBS Classical, 2018)


Three generations of Spanish composers
Ten Spanish composers of three different generations constitute the corpus of this document which, for the reasons exhibited in its content and realization, may well be described as "historical", in the Diltheyan sense, considering history as a synthesis of the "facts" generated by the work of the individual being in each time (Introduction to the sciences of the spirit, 1883). Without any doubt the "generational" dimension alluded to is orteganian and his quote will help to understand the historical significance of the generations that Ortega outlined in 1914 (Old and New Politics) and that he develops later (El tema de nuestro tiempo (1923) and En torno a Galileo (1933), as a theory of the most genuine scientific value that outlines the meaning of the generational as "an integral way of existence" that allows us to understand each "today" of history. The generational perspective is the nearer reference to know the aesthetic and dialectical fluids of history, each generation being "the hinge on which it executes its movements", and it is the generations, which follow one another throughout history, that determines the value of contemporaneity in "coincidence" (not in equality) with the contemporary, as it will easily conclude the names and works that forms this CD.
Following the lines drawn by Ortega (The Idea of the Generations) systematized by his disciple Julián Marías in El método histórico de las generaciones, and taking as reference the Spanish generation commonly called "generation of 51" (anecdotal name that does not respond to any evolutionary system as it is actually the "generation of 1931", that means, those born between 1924 and 1938 (C. Halffter, L. de Pablo, C. Bernaola, C. Prieto, among others), which was a significant point of inflexion in Spanish music, equivalent to the European one of the Boulez, Berio (1925). Henze, Kurtag (1926), Stockhausen (1928) and many others), it is time to situate generationally the ten composers who illustrate with their names and their works the content of this CD. Each has developed its unique "mode of existence" through a shared time (contemporaneity) and at the same time differentiated in the generational context of three generations (45 years, endowing each generation with a chronological identity of 15 years), and they filter in this document its singularity through works composed in a chronological context very close to contemporary, between 1995 and 2017, which will accentuate the characteristics of individual creativity, as a consequence of the "mode of existence" woven through time, and the generational characteristics that explain the common historical context.
The three generations mentioned are determined by the year of birth of each of the composers: the one of 1946 which, according to Ortega's parameters, includes those born between 1939 and 1953 (Miguel Bustamante (1948), José Luis Turina and Santiago Lanchares (1952), the one of 1961, which includes, those born between 1954 and 1968 (Sebastián Mariné (1957), David del Puerto (1964), Jesús Torres (1965) and José María Sánchez Verdú (1968), and the one from 1976 including those born between 1969 and 1983 (Gabriel Erkoreka (1969), Carlos Perón (1976) and Mario Carro (1979).) It is evident that the concept of contemporaneity comprises chronologically all the composers mentioned, since they all belong to the same period. Although contemporaneity, a factor defined by the same age, only affects a minority, however, it will be the works included in this record document, all composed between 1995 and 2017, which clearly show the convergences or divergences that the aesthetic and expressive order exist among the composers who illustrate its content.

The mystique of the viola
Here is the main function of the interpreter, mediating dialectically and experientially between the work created and the perceived work, a function that the violist Ana María Alonso assumes and unfolds in this phonographic recording with the utmost exigency and with the most exquisite interpretative fidelity in each work, technically supported by the Hallmark IBS-CLASSICAL, whose rigor has been characteristic of its usual trajectory. Only the committed and complicit listening of the perceiver remains so that the musical phenomenon can be verified in all its dimensions.
The title chosen for this document, ALTO MYSTIC, reflects what the violist Ana María Alonso and the IBS-CLASSICAL label wanted to suggest as the universe enclosed in an instrument full of secrets such as the viola, an instrument that has transcended from the orchestral ripieno scene to a solo virtuosity in a relatively short time. The accurate reference to the etymological origin of the term (from the Greek mystikós whose first meaning is about something arcane and mysterious) not only reveals the intention of discovering the timbre and expressive effects of the viola but to inducing composers to penetrate into their mysterious world through the works composed for this occasion. In this sense. Interpreter and composers have achieved their purpose, without a doubt: Ana Maria Alonso discovering the subtleties of the viola's timbre through a technical and expressive refinement of the highest instrumental conception, and the ten composers, each from their creativity, constructing an enriching musical poetic discourse, not only for the violistic repertoire, but for the music itself.

Works
Although not all the works contained in this CD have been originally composed for viola ("Alto" in French), it has been a large part of it and those that were written for violin or for cello were transcribed for viola at the request of violist Ana María Alonso in close collaboration with each one of the composers, highlighting as an objective the violistic treatment of all of them and as a methodological thread her mystique, which in all cases responds to the Heideggerian poiesis of "enlightenment" (clarification of reality), (El origen de la obra de arte, 1935). In some cases there are works that incorporate as an inspiring source references of Spanish poets (San Juan de la Cruz, Juan Ramón Jiménez, Ángel González).
[...]

José Luis Turina. Viola joke
With a sense of humor and a characteristic savoir faire of the Madrid composer, José Luis Turina has chosen the Capricho n. 24 by Niccolò Paganini to perform a paraphrase around this emblematic work for his violinist virtuosity, enriching with it the violistic repertoire and stimulating his study of high virtuosity performed by the violist Ana María Alonso. The title already reflects the intentions: Viola joke, attitude that Mozart enjoyed so much, but with Turina the intention goes beyond the "joke". Turina respects the structure of Paganini's Capriccio, of a theme with 11 variations, except for its minor modality, converted from the beginning into major (C major), but gets into the universe of the constructive paraphrase to make other variations on the variations of the Genoese violinist. We are therefore before a work which incorporates, to the playful attitude of his creativity, an enormous didactic proposal and an interpretation of history that time and the violists will recognize him with the same affection that he dedicates to the protagonist of its premiere, performer Ana María Alonso.
[...]

Download pdfs

(Scores without watermarks available at www.asesores-musicales.com )


Score of Viola joke

Score of Violin joke

Score of Cello joke