What people do not understand is that it is actually difficult to play the viola. No matter what the repertoire is, it is quite difficult to produce acceptable and beautiful sound. Difficult viola pieces require the violist to be adept at reaching for the 3rd, 4th, and 5th position, which is much easier to do on the violin. It is much easier to play the notes and maneuver on the violin's finger board than on the viola.
That is very true in my experience😂.. as I am practicing Nobuko Imani’s transcription of the Britten cello suites at the moment (a start for a new list of either best transcriptions for viola or best solo repertoire😉?)
@Sinbat Siraseranant Maybe. Coming from guitar before either cello or viola was a big help, as I'm used to horizontal and vertical orientations. That being said, I'm saying too much about myself, I don't want to distract from your point.
The hardest part of the learning the viola is, in my opinion, actually the crazy learning curve of repertoire for students. There are big holes of repertoire in term of difficulty. You gotta jump from pieces like Hoffmeister's concerto, Stamitz' concerto (which the latter is pretty difficult for beginners already), Zelter's concerto and like also the Bruch Romance, with all the Bach you can play, which is all the repertoire for cello AND violin (because transcriptions right XD). Learning the viola in itself is difficult because of the added size to the violin, added weight required for good sound projection, AND above all that, the repertoire learning curve is crazy. But i enjoyed the ride as a violist (with no experience on the violin prior)! Let's go viola gang! Right on the spot for the list of hardest pieces!
Very true! However J.C. Bach and Handel (Casadesus) have helped in the intermediate to upper intermediate repertoire space. It would be very difficult to jump from Stamitz into Hindemith or Walton with no break to take time with other pieces. I nearly did the whole of the Arpeggione sonata and Suite Hebraique before touching Der Schwanendreher and it was still a very big challenge. Etudes and very frequent Bach studying going up through the suites can definitely mitigate some of the voids in the repertoire! It is definitely worth the struggle for the kind of beauty the viola can create.
That’s absolutely true. When I switched to viola, I started on Stamitz concerto thinking it would be equivalent to Mozart G major. It was a struggle to get it in shape but on the bright side it pushed me to improve quickly. A year later and the next concerto for me was Walton
@@violaisreallycool About Casadesus - sometimes I get the impression his works are taboo. I guess it's in the Bach/Händel labeling, so it's fake, so it's bad, so we don't pretend they exist. Is that a thing, or is it just the musicians I met?
@@altoclef6688 I’ve encountered that too. They are both present in the Suzuki viola books, however I’m sure most teachers would prescribe specific pieces rather than utilize the whole book. It seems to me a little less taboo than violin Bach on viola, however. I’ve seen a student at CIM play “J.C. Bach” but also heard the Oberlin Professor call the “Händel” cheesy.
I’d have to suggest the whole Suite Hebraique for viola and orchestra because of lyricism and I believe very full of melodic, dark and lovely lines. Meditation and Processional are also very nice for many occasions. I am a Bloch lover, and Bach (poly) are must’s!!❤
Our 6-year-old has selected viola as the instrument she wants to take school lessons on starting in the fall. We stumbled across your channel because of the Pirates of the Caribbean short and have been enjoying your content. Thanks!
"Hard" in viola is different from "hard" on the violin, and people don't seem to understand this. The main reason for this is that everything is twice as hard on the viola because of just how the instrument is designed. So what's easy on the violin is harder on the viola. Plus, there are unique difficulties associated with the instrument, such as the notorious difficulty for producing a projected sound. My humble opinion as an amateur, should I clarify.
Can you link this? I played violin for a while and was asked to play viola, but I was never proficient at either despite being quite good at playing sheet music. My viola always felt too big for me despite being the "right" size -- fourth finger in first position always felt too far to reach -- and I feel like I never enjoyed it as much as I could have because of that, but maybe I was just never taught how to actually play viola!
I thought that Walton was more difficult than Der Schwanendreher, and felt good about myself as I spent two years learning it for my graduation recital. Now I'm a bit bummed that my highest achievement on the viola was the easiest of the standard modern concerti.
I've played the first two movements of Clarke and the first movement of Walton (stumbling through the second rn), and I've found that Walton is more technically challenging. Clarke is chamber music, so it's musicality requires a whole other level of concentration.
All of Berio's sequenze are astoundingly difficult. I had a lot of fun teaching number 3 to a bunch of singers in a contemporary music workshop some few years ago 🤪
This is a great list. It does make me wonder though, which of these have you played? Which do you aspire to play? And are there any that you wouldn't touch with a ten-foot bow?
I’m currently trying to learn Penderecki and it’s going ok but I haven’t even dreamt of memorizing it yet. Of the rest I’ve done Walton, Hindemith, and Bartok. I would totally be down to learn the rest some day, especially Beriot sequenza, although each would take a ton of time
I am a junior in high school currently learning walton. it is very hard, but has very melodically singing lines that are super emotional, and the moderato parts are super fun. Just finished forsyth viola concerto, which i recommend the cadenza in the first mov. it is super hard, but the reward is so great
This is a great list. Have you ever heard of Márton Illés piece for solo viola Psychogramm I. "Jajgatós"? There's a video of Paul Beckett perfoming it here on RU-vid which is incredible. Lots of extended techniques and wide range of colors. If you happen to get your hands on the score I would suggest checking it out with the score in hand.
I have made a repertoire collection after listening to many viola pieces and these are my favourites and the order in which I plan to learn. The difficulty level starts from Suzuki book 4 level and reaches all the way to FTCL( Fellowship Diploma from Trinity College London). Viola Reverie:A Collection of Masterpieces for Viola by Renowned Composers" 1. Georg Philipp Telemann - Viola Concerto 2. Georg Philipp Telemann - Double Viola Concerto 3. Johann Christian Bach - Concerto in Cm/Bm (Casadesus) 4. Mikhail Glinka - Sonata in D minor 5. Sergei Taneyev - Album Leaf, op. 33 6. Henri Vieuxtemps - Elegy 7. Alexander Glazunov - Elegy 8. Henri Vieuxtemps - Capriccio 9. Johannes Brahms - Sonata in F minor, op. 120 no. 1 10. Johannes Brahms - Sonata in Eb, op. 120 no. 2 11. Franz Anton Hoffmeister - Concerto in D 12. Franz Anton Hoffmeister - Concerto in Bb 13. Franz Schubert - Sonata in A minor ‘Arpeggione’ 14. Robert Schumann - Märchenbilder, op. 113 15. Carl Stamitz - Concerto in D 16. Henri Vieuxtemps - Sonata in Bb 17. Krzysztof Penderecki - Cadenza 18. Alfred Schnittke - Concerto 19. Béla Bartók - Concerto 20. Niccolò Paganini - Sonata Grand de Viola You could substitute cello suites with sonatas and partitas for sola viola JS Bach. Happy learning!!!!!!
The hardest piece I played, was 'Heinrich Kaminski Praeludium und Fuge'. To get through it, it doesn't require the stamina of the Berio, yet it's many difficulties have to be overcome. The work still has to sound beautiful and make musical sense.
My biggest problem with the viola repertoire is that many of the challenging pieces are so modern that I don’t want to play them (no offense to modern music, just not my thing). I wish the romantic masters had championed the viola as a solo instrument more (thankfully there’s no shortage of great viola writing in the chamber repertoire)
I agree. And it is not that contemporary music is too modern, I find the problem for modern is detachment from the public. It feels like composer's go into this little world, yet there is nothing that allows a listerner to actually go into that world.
Hello, What about "Dimitri Schostakowitsch Viola Sonata, 1st and 2nd Satz? 3rd Satz ist also difficult,emotional to play,but I personally would think,2nd Satz ist very hard!!! Thank you for your very kind impression of the Alto 🎻🎶🙏 All the beloved best to you🍀🍀🍀 your Opera-Tenor-Violist-Collegue from Europe 🇪🇺 Germany 🇩🇪, Lörrach, three Zone-Area Country Area 🇪🇺🇩🇪🇨🇵🇨🇭,right to Basel 🇨🇭,and 10 Min away to 🇨🇵,Greetings to the 🇺🇸 Yours Josha 🙋♂️
If I was weighing musical difficulty higher on the scale this definitely would have made the most. I played it for my recital last December. There’s definitely a lot of challenging material but it gives the violist a lot more breaks in between so the hand is less exhausted and although there are some challenging double stops, nothing really felt impossible to me the same way other pieces on this list have at times
@@ViolaKing good for ya!! I'm glad for you 🎻😊😃 All the beloved best to you 🍀 🍀 🍀 Greetings from Europe German French Swiss Border Area Lörrach Germany 🇪🇺 🇩🇪 🇨🇵 🇨🇭=🇺🇸, Yours Josha 🙋♂️🎻
For me Ligeti is harder than Bartok and Rosza. But I learned Bartok ~20 years ago, so the terror has probably faded over time. 😅 Ligeti makes my brain stop functioning within minutes of starting to work on any movement of it. Lol 🤯
Where would you put the first movement of Les Espaces Acoustiques by Gerard Grisey? It surely sounds very difficult with all the microtones, but what is your opinion?
I got very enamored with the ligeti sonata, specifically movement 5 and 6, but the terrible double stop harmonics in movement 5 just make me feel like putting the instrument down. Bleh! Hope there is an easier way to do it.
I play an 1880 Hopf violin (fiddle), but I also carry in a double case a 1952 Carl Hermann 15 1/2 inch viola (my fiddola) ;) I switch when playing in C, D, or E. You can pull a lot more fiddle in those chords from a viola!! In C you got two octaves in first position! In D you got the same note structure as A on a violin. A viola is very useful to a fiddle player! I could care less about it's use in classical music, but if you fiddle, try a viola on "Billy in the Low Ground" in C major ;) Sally Goodin is always in A on fiddle, but play it on viola it becomes D! Drives those banjo and mandolin players crazy LOL!
I have always wondered whether Paganini intended for the really high parts of his Sonata to be played above the fingerboard (as opposed to using artificial harmonics).
I think it's important to adapt the Paganini to what your instrument sounds best doing. Some instruments sound better on harmonics, some can sing in the high registers
Don't forget Franco Donatoni's blistering 'Ali', written for Aldo Bennici - IMO a much more satisfying piece (actuall, two pieces) than the scrubby Berio Sequenza. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-lXqazE8OvJc.html Oh, and Berio's 'Voci' (Folksongs II) is pretty good. Alexander Goehr's 'Schlussgesang' for viola and ensemble. - a magnificent, elegiac work published by Schott.
There is a crowd that want you to stop breathing and accept anything they said to you just because you play the viola. Strange minds, i think... I play the violin 5 more years than the viola but i like better the sound of the viola. The depth and complexity in my violas sound, even if it's fairly cheap, gets me every time. And that chinrest at 0:41
Great stuff! Thanks! I freely admit that I’m not much of a violist. It was my childhood instrument, but I do more with bassoon, classical guitar, and believe it or not classical saxophones (ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-EC96jGxQ98Y.html). Ultimately, I confess I’m more interested in Composition, and especially Microtonal Composition, than performance. However, in 1989 I bought a pretty nice viola by Tauno Ekonen, hoping to take it up again, but got engrossed in work and … “same old story” as they say… Two years to retirement! I’m gonna pull out my Ekonen and get even with time!
I love the viola, but only a few of these pieces. Most sound like the instrument is being tortured and abused with harsh, strident toned. Of course, there is a place for that in music, but it makes me sad for the lack of options. There are also quite a few nasty pieces firbthe violin that seldom get played because they are not enjoyable to listen to. And i don't mean just nodern. The most popular violin concertos are both difficult and musical, not merely showpieces for superhuman technique.
I once wrote a Piece for solo viola ( ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-syCig5py5fo.html ) in close collaboration with the eventual performer and both of us had no problem with including just about everything yet have been accepted in the technique of violin and cello. The viola can do just about everything its close "relatives" can do.
I love viola. I totally admire great viola players alive today. I play viola myself! However I absolutely detest modern pieces which are dissonant and don’t have a tune. They are full of anger and violence, not nice to play or listen to. We need contemporary composers to write a beautiful concerto for viola. Not the modern crap which any fool could spit onto a page. Sorry if this truth offends anyone.
Looks like you've made the all too common error of mistaking your opinion for fact! Don't worry, it's the internet, so at least you can make such mistakes anonymously
@@composerjalen I think from your tedious response you know pretty well that it is my opinion. In fact most contemporary music is horrible nonsense…why…because it will never be played again and won’t stand the test of time. Modern film music is beautiful because it has to go with a visual which expresses meaningful human emotions. This random Un-tuneful Un-memorable commissioned nonsense has only one reason to exist…to make a little bit of money for a desperate untalented composer and cosy the ego of the tickboxers who listen to it thinking it is some amazing world premiere. When in reality it is a pile of musical toilet not worth even playing in the toilet. There - that’s all MY OPINION. And I love music…real music by REAL people. Not pretentious snobs. People are too polite in real life and won’t say the truth. And just clap anyway while they turn to each other and lie about how much they “enjoyed” what they just heard. When in reality they are clapping because they are relieved that the “difficult” part of the concert is over. You are right. This is the internet, so I can speak the truth. And it hurts to say it as well as to hear it…I am sure. Hence why I said sorry if the truth offends anyone. You don’t have to agree.
How hard is Walton? I’m currently playing Paganini Sonata Per la Grand and Hindemith Der Schwanedreher for college auditions but just wondering since I love the first mvt too! And is the list in order of difficulty, or just in general? ;-;
The list is in order of 1 being hardest to 10 being tenth hardest. Paganini and Hindemith have tons of ridiculous technical sections, so they’re above Walton, although Walton has more musical challenges in my opinion. I’ve played Hindemith but not the Paganini sonata (although I do caprice 24) so it’s just based off of my experience of how hard it was to learn each of them
@@ViolaKing ohhh, my teacher has told me Walton is really easy, but I wasn’t so sure considering what other people have said about the piece espeically with it also being used as a college audition material. Just wondering but do you think you will ever learn the Paganini Sonata? I’m on the third variation rn and I’ve been dying with me scrambling to get it ready for trial lessons in two weeks with the other mvts 🫣🥲
Thanks for this list! Beriot is just insanely crazy! Btw I really love how you highlight so many different performers in this list (and also in your top 10 darkest viola pieces video)!
hi, dont want to bother you, but it's Rózsa (5:44) means rose in Hungarian, and "ZS" is pronunced like the start of "je" in france. thanks for the video, just a little detail
1:45 is that a beautiful Guadagnini? I've seen pictures but never heard it before. Who's playing on that viola currently (or in this vid at least) please? :)
Hi James: This hardly qualifies as "super hard" but it does pose some particular challenges for the violist: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-eaYniuNwPK4.html Thanks for your posts--keep up the good work!
is walton harder than pag and bartok? i feel that pag and bartok are harder than walton though, but i have never played walton, i want to tho sounds nice!
I’ve been a musician for almost 50 years. I’ve never hear anyone ever say that viola doesn’t have any difficult repertoire. I’ve heard people ask why we need violas in the first place. Hahahahahahahaha jk.
