Viola Sonata (1933)

Commenting on his Viola Sonata in As I Remember, Sir Arthur Bliss confessed that as the work grew he “realised that it was really becoming a concerto for the instrument,“ adding that “if today I had the energy and patience I would translate the piano accompaniment into an orchestral tissue.” What worried him apparently was its length (approximately 25 minutes) which he felt would be less of a “deterrent” in a concerto than in a duo sonata. In fact, while it might well have made a successful concerto, the Viola Sonata is not only one of the best works of its kind but is also perfectly proportioned in relation to its material.

After a preliminary low D on the piano, the opening theme of of the first movement generates such an impetus – from the friction between the wide-ranging melody on the viola and cross-rhythms on the piano – that it demands space to fulfill its potential. Although other, briskly articulated subsidiary thematic ideas find a way in, the main theme retains a dominant presence either in detail or by way of the three descending notes that are its most prominent feature. It is only after an emphatically scored climax involving both instruments that the piano is able to divert attention to a new theme long enough to establish it as a second subject. A quietly expressive bluesy kind of melody, it is taken up by the viola, but not for long. The impulse to return to the urgent message of the first subject is so strong that it animates a dramatic development with little time for reflection. It is, however, the apparently insignificant second-subject melody that on its recall initiates the relaxation in pressure in the closing bars, with the main theme now quietly resigned to a D minor ending.

The bluesy melody also has a vital role in the the slow movement which begins with a variant of it plucked on the muted viola over a sustained dissonance on the piano. As well as referring back to the first movement, this short preface also anticipates much of the material that is to be heard in the following Andante poco maestoso section. Discarding the mute and taken up the bow, the violist introduces a B-flat-major melody clearly derived from the pizzicato passage. It is developed, spontaneously and poetically, before the piano quietly turns its attention to an expressive second theme at a slightly quicker tempo. The lyricism which has prevailed so far is to be thrust rudely aside in the middle section. Beginning dolcissimo with a viola melody in 5/4 over an ostinato of quavers in a 15/8 piano part, it rises to a harshly dissonant fortissimo climax based on a strident four-note motif. Recalled towards the end of the movement, however, the four-note motif offers no threat to the tranquillity which as been restored in the meantime. A concluding pizzicato passage acts as a reminder of where the main themes have come from.

The Molto allegro third movement is headed Furiant presumably because of the dynamic cross-rhythms that frequently occur between the viola and the left hand of the piano part. It seems relevant also, though in an emotive rather than technical sense, to the furiously repetitive climax to which, in spite of brief interventions of less urgent material, the two instruments are inescapably driven. The emphatically repeated Cs at the end of the Furiant are not, however, the end of the work. Without a pause but with a change of tempo to the Andante maestoso of the first movement, the Coda not only offers a cadenza to both viola and piano but also reviews themes from earlier movements, including the opening theme of the work, and ends the sonata in the D minor in which it began.

Dedicated, like many British works featuring solo viola, to Lionel Tertis, Bliss’s Viola Sonata was first performed by the dedicatee and Solomon (with William Walton turning the pages) at a BBC Chamber Concerto in 1933.