The detailing and readability
of this magnificent book from John White,
the doyen of the viola and viola literature,
is remarkable. These aspects more than
make up for any disappointment you may
have suffered if you have read Tertis’s
own: My Viola and I – A Complete
Autobiography (Paul Elek, 1974)
which to my taste rather scouted over
context and detail.
During the 1930s Lionel
Tertis began to suffer from acute fibrositis
in his right arm. This adversely affected
his bowing and prevented spiccato
playing. So handicapped did he become
that in 1937 at the age of 60 he summarily
announced his retirement from playing.
In the same year he was reported as
saying that his most immediate regret
was that he would be unable to play
the Romantic Fantasy for violin,
viola and orchestra which he had lately
commissioned from Arthur Benjamin. His
farewell was made with a BBC concert
including Harold in Italy and
the Walton concerto. The retirement
though quite sincere was not to last
long.
Mr White tracks Tertis’s
story from far from lofty beginnings
in 1876 in West Hartlepool to the move
to London as a very young child to studies
at the TCM in 1895. Along the way he
eked out his student income by working
as music intendant at a lunatic asylum
in Preston.
Tertis was not always
a violist. He started with the violin
but adopted his new instrument in the
late 1890s. By the early 1900s he was
probably one of the finest violists
in the world. His style would have been
virtually vibrato-less as was the fashion
of the time. Judicious use of vibrato
was later to become an essential part
of his armoury.
We are familiar with
his championing of British music, commissioning,
performing and encouraging a new generation
of players and creators. Less familiar
will be his pushing of the Mozart Sinfonia
Concertante at Bournemouth and the
Queen’s Hall in the 1900s and this at
a time when Mozart had hardly any presence
in English concert programmes. He performed
that work throughout his career and
was to record it in the 1930s with Albert
Sammons and the LPO conducted by Harty.
The sessions took place on 30 April
1933, the day after Harriet Cohen and
Tertis had given a concert in the British
Embassy in Berlin.
John White completes
other non-musical details for us. We
learn that Tertis was a keen motorcyclist
using his machine to get to concert
fixtures. Later he acquired a Model
T Ford. He took up golf until it started
to affect his viola playing.
His experiences during
the Great War are vividly recalled as
is his involvement with the Chamber
Music Players during the 1920s. In 1924
they visited Newcastle. Tertis there
tried out Bainton’s recently completed
viola
sonata although he never played
it publicly. His American tours, in
which he performed the York Bowen concerto,
and his association with Mrs Coolidge
and her circle are also recounted as
is his return there after 1955. We hear
of Tertis’s adventures with the RVW
Flos Campi, Walton’s concerto
and Tertis’s own transcription of the
Elgar Cello Concerto.
A second life opened
up for him after retirement. He collaborated
with luthier Arthur Richardson in the
quest for the perfect size and proportion
for the viola. Richardson was a quiet
and introverted master workman while
Tertis was mercurial with a highly flammable
temper. Richardson was practical; Tertis,
ever the artist-idealist, clashed woundingly
with Richardson. Richardson was the
first of a series of luthiers-craftsmen
with whom Tertis worked and then fell
out over this or that unauthorized change
to the design. These larger violas made
their way in the music world. They had
their vogue and as White points out
have now been relegated to an interesting
historical development. Intriguing to
see whether the ‘original instrument’
lobby will in future go back to the
Tertis model to perform works written
during its heyday from the 1940s to
the 1960s. Intense feelings were provoked
by the new design and these erupted
into a letter war in the pages of The
Strad.
Vaughan Williams always
referred to his 1940s film music efforts
as his war work. In the case of Tertis
he felt that his contribution must be
to recant from retirement and get back
into giving concerts. This he did in
1939. In December 1941 he premiered
RVW’s Suite for viola and orchestra.
The next year it was Dunhill’s Triptych
for viola and orchestra – a work
surely meriting revival perhaps coupled
with Dunhill’s symphony. He also made
and performed arrangements of three
sonatas by John Ireland – the cello
sonata and the two violin sonatas.
The detailing of this
book includes a sequence of appendices.
Appendix 1 lists the different violas
played by Tertis year by year. There
are plans of the Tertis violas. A short
selection of his published articles
is included. The Tertis BBC appearances
are there from 21 December 1924 to 29
December 1966 – one of the most fascinating
aspects of the book. His honours are
surveyed as are the works with which
he was associated including those commissioned
by him or dedicated to him. The book
is completed by a bibliography and a
19 page index. I am pleased to see the
scholarly notes placed as endnotes from
page 303 onwards. This certainly aids
readability. There is also a discography
showing his move from Vocalion (1919-1924)
to Columbia (1924 –1933) to HMV (1924-1947).
It is piteous that he did not record
more substantial works.
Into the bargain this
very substantial volume costs only £25.00.
What is it that Boydell do to keep costs
down when compared with other specialist
music publishers?
Students of Tertis
and the viola are an obvious market
for this splendid book. In addition,
anyone with an interest in the English
musical renaissance will find the pages
thronged with composers from that era.
A well structured,
sturdy and fascinating account of a
life - a crusade for the viola and its
repertoire.
Rob Barnett
See also review
by Arthur Butterworth
