“When I found the viola I felt like I had -come home- in a way”

Altviolisten in de wereld zijn er in vele soorten en maten. Elke maand zal onze eigen razende reporter en bestuurslid Kristofer G. Skaug iemand de hemd van het lijf vragen over de altviool en meer! Deze maand trappen we af met niemand minder dan altiste Ásdís Valdimarsdóttir!

Ásdís Valdimarsdóttir

De in Amsterdam woonachtige IJslandse altiste Ásdís Valdimarsdóttir studeerde altviool aan de Julliard School of Music in New York bij Paul Doktor, Felix Galimir en het Juilliard Quartet, en later in Detmold bij Nobuko Imai; medeoprichter van het Miami String Quartet; van 1995-2003 lid van het Chilingirian String Quartet; speelde in verschillende kamerorkesten zoals de Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, het Chamber Orchestra of Europe en het Ensemble Modern; hoofdvakdocent aan The Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester; en sinds kort ook bij het Koninklijk Conservatorium in Den Haag.  Zij is ook als docent verbonden aan de jaarlijkse Internationale Masterclasses in Apeldoorn voor jonge kamermusici.

DVS: Tell us something about the beginnings of your viola training on Iceland?

I started on the violin… there are not very many people in Iceland (300.000) and very few played the viola. I had never heard the viola being played in a solo capacity until one day when I was walking in the hallway of the Reykjavík music school when I was about 14 or 15. I heard this amazing sound coming out of one of the rooms – so I opened the door and found out it was coming from a viola! An Icelandic woman called Unnur Sveinbjarnardóttir, who had left home to study in Germany with Bruno Giuranna, was preparing for a recital with a local pianist. From then on I knew I wanted to play viola. When I finally told my violin teacher I wanted to change completely to viola, she told me I was ruining my life!! After that it was a bit tricky because there was no viola teacher at the school! So I had some lessons with members of the Iceland Symphony, listened to as many recordings as I could get my hands on and managed to get away to the Juilliard school in New York when I was 18.

DVS: Are there more musicians in your family?

Only one other professional one- my sister Lilja. She plays the French horn in the Iceland symphony. She is a few years older than me and was a big help in my early musical development.

DVS: At which point did you know you wanted to become a violist?

I think I knew straight away when I started violin that I wanted to be a musician- a very strong instinct that I never doubted somehow. When I found the viola – as told above – I felt like I had -come home- in a way, or found my voice.

DVS: What was the single most valuable viola playing advice you have ever had?

Actually that one came from an American oboist, whose name I have forgotten, who was obsessed with overtones! He was one of those people who need to talk a lot- and wanted to tell me all about his theory of how musicians of all genders and instruments need to think more about letting the natural over tone series ring on their instrument. So for viola this means to not give more pressure with the bow- or try to put more weight on the string when you want more sound, but in fact the opposite! In other words allowing your strings to vibrate as much as possible produces a much bigger sound than pressing and squashing your string. You can actually see the oscillations on the string if you observe what happens when you press too hard and how much wider the string swings from side to side when you don´t press.  This is even more important on a viola than a violin or a cello because of the acoustic size problems.

DVS: Tell us about your instrument. How did your paths cross, and what do you see as its finest qualities?

I play a viola by Otto Erdesz, a Hungarian man who lived and worked in Canada. He was married to Rivka Golany and made her ´cut away´ viola. I found it many years ago through Andreas Post. I had asked him to let me know when he would get a great sounding instrument that I would be able to afford into his shop- so one day he called me up and told me about this one.  I was living in Germany at the time, but I went to pick it up and promptly got a bank loan! I have played it ever since, and it has managed to survive – when I was in the Chilingirian Quartet next to two golden period Strads- and next to many other great old instruments I have had the good fortune to play next to. It is definitely a male! Very strong and robust and usually does what I ask … Sometimes I wish for a more elegant instrument- but one can’t have everything!!

DVS: What are your favourite viola solo pieces? and chamber music?

When I´m asked that question I usually think- hopefully whatever I´m playing just then… but I love playing solo Hindemith- particularly the Passacaglia sonata.  In Chamber music I would not like to be without the late Beethoven quartets or the Mozart viola quintets…

DVS: What was your most memorable viola moment?

Is this one a joke? As in when I walked on stage without my bow? (a pencil in my right hand!) Or if you mean it seriously – perhaps playing the York Bowen fantasy [viola quartet] with Isabella van Keulen, Esther van Stralen and Béatrice Muthelet at the Delft Chamber Music Festival a few years ago was a really memorable viola moment!

DVS: Have you had any association with the Icelandic Viola Society (Víólufélag Íslands)? Is there a characteristic viola culture on Iceland, compared to other countries?

I have been away from Iceland for so long now – and when I left there were hardly any viola players at all- even the small viola section in the orchestra was mostly non Icelanders who were there for a short time then. But luckily this has changed and in fact there is indeed an Icelandic viola society. They even had a congress there a few years ago – but unfortunately I was in the middle of a quartet tour and could not go. I hope there will be more activity there in the future.

DVS: Do you have any expectations of the activities of the Dutch Viola Society, in practical terms?

I hope it will be very active at promoting viola music in general- and in particular prove all the viola jokes wrong!! Thankfully that is already happening. The standard of viola playing is really getting higher – I really believe that the same technical standard should be demanded of viola players as violinists and cellists.  A viola society can only enhance the profile of our wonderful instrument – the soul of the string quartet!

© Dutch Viola Society / edited by Kristofer G. Skaug, September 2012