Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 The Tertis Family
- 2 Early Career
- 3 The Great War
- 4 The Chamber Music Players
- 5 American Tours
- 6 Return to the Royal Academy of Music
- 7 The Elgar and Walton Concertos
- 8 The BBC Orchestra, Delius, Bax and Vaughan Williams
- 9 A Shock Retirement
- 10 The Richardson–Tertis Viola
- 11 The Second World War
- 12 Promoting the Tertis Model Viola
- 13 Return to America and Eightieth Birthday Celebrations
- 14 Second Marriage and Last Appearance
- 15 TV Profile and Ninetieth Birthday
- 16 Final Years
- Notes
- Appendix 1 Tertis’s Violas
- Appendix 2 The Tertis Model Viola
- Appendix 3 Tertis’s Writings and Talks
- Appendix 4 Tertis’s BBC Appearances
- Appendix 5 Tertis’s Honours
- Appendix 6 Music with Tertis Connections
- Appendix 7 The Tertis Bequest
- Appendix 8 The Tertis Legacy
- Discography
- Bibliography
- Index
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 The Tertis Family
- 2 Early Career
- 3 The Great War
- 4 The Chamber Music Players
- 5 American Tours
- 6 Return to the Royal Academy of Music
- 7 The Elgar and Walton Concertos
- 8 The BBC Orchestra, Delius, Bax and Vaughan Williams
- 9 A Shock Retirement
- 10 The Richardson–Tertis Viola
- 11 The Second World War
- 12 Promoting the Tertis Model Viola
- 13 Return to America and Eightieth Birthday Celebrations
- 14 Second Marriage and Last Appearance
- 15 TV Profile and Ninetieth Birthday
- 16 Final Years
- Notes
- Appendix 1 Tertis’s Violas
- Appendix 2 The Tertis Model Viola
- Appendix 3 Tertis’s Writings and Talks
- Appendix 4 Tertis’s BBC Appearances
- Appendix 5 Tertis’s Honours
- Appendix 6 Music with Tertis Connections
- Appendix 7 The Tertis Bequest
- Appendix 8 The Tertis Legacy
- Discography
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Working with a harpsichordist – further tours – Tertis as teacher – a shock retirement and farewell dinner – appreciations for a great artist
Among Violet Gordon Woodhouse's circle, who met regularly over the years in London, Lypiatt and Armscote were the Sitwells, Ethel Smyth, Arnold Dolmetsch, Augustin Rubio, Enrique Fernandez Arbos, Arthur Waley and Tertis. On 5 March 1935 Tertis gave a recital at the Wigmore Hall with Violet playing the harpsichord; their programme took in pieces by Handel, Martini, Mozart, Galuppi, Tartini, Scarlatti, Telemann, Porpora, Vaughan Williams, Kalnis, Poulenc and Marais. The Times reported that ‘everything was exceedingly well played, though one felt that the viola's tone was sometimes too dry, especially on the top string. The viola tone seemed to take off some of the sparkle of the harpsichord, which sounded better in the solo music.’ The review in Musical Times was of the same opinion:
it must be confessed that the harpsichord does not partner the viola so well as the violin, owing to something inherent in the nature of the two tones. This together with the loss of the viola's low notes when playing violin music in its original key, just prevented Handel's Sonata in F from touching the superlative charm of the performances of two sonatas by Martini and various solos.
In the 1930s Tertis often played with Violet in the drawing room of her home at Nether Lypiatt Manor. He must have achieved a gentle muted effect, for Eve Simmonds thought his viola and Violet's clavichord ‘very well balanced and beautifully together’. A critic wrote: ‘Segovia on the guitar, Lionel Tertis on the viola, Casals on the cello and Violet Gordon Woodhouse on the harpsichord may be classed together as the four who can distil from these instruments the purest musical essence.’
Another of Tertis's concerto transcriptions had been taking shape, this time of the double concerto for violin and cello by Frederick Delius. After Delius's death in 1934 Jelka Delius wrote to Tertis:
I have just come back to Grez, and I want to tell you that May Harrison, altho’ she at first thought it would offend her sister (Beatrice) if she played the Double Concerto with you, has now found that her sister is not at all against it. As you said you had no violinist yet, I venture to suggest that you take her.
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- Information
- Lionel TertisThe First Great Virtuoso of the Viola, pp. 136 - 159Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2006