Saò Soulez Larivière, viola / Nominated in collaboration with the ICMA

Martina Consonni, piano

“Wherever my viola takes me, I will be happy to be by its side.” – Sào Soulez Larivière

Larivière: Playing ensemble and in ensemble

Childhood is…

A shared giggle with a sibling

Splashing in the pouring rain

Snapshots of fairy tales.

Hand-in-bow with his instrument, Franco-Dutch violist Sào Soulez Larivière will share his love of chamber music that blossomed through childhood play with his sister and violinist, Cosima. His open and sensitive musicality was especially drawn to the role of the viola in ensemble playing, “As a violist, you use your ears more than your voice, so to speak!” Although the siblings still frequently perform together, this programme will be presented with Italian pianist Martina Consonni, another artist of Classeek’s Ambassador Programme.

Fittingly, we begin with the piece Fratres (‘brother’ in Latin) by Arvo Pärt. It is an exploration of tintinnabuli - the rich complexity of pealing bells, unfurled through inversions and variations of a chord progression. Simultaneously, its unfolding patterns and sequences reveal Pärt’s underlying uncertainty:

“Tintinnabulation is an area I sometimes wander into when I am searching for answers…In my dark hours, I have the certain feeling that everything outside this one thing has no meaning. The complex and many-faceted only confuses me, and I must search for unity. What is it, this one thing, and how do I find my way to it?”

It could be that this one thing is Fratres. Brother. Sibling.

Or it could be the rain. Titled Regensonate (“Rain Sonata”), the final movement of Brahms’ Violin Sonata No.1, Op. 78 quotes melodic motifs from his own art song Regenlied (“Rainsong”). A romantic sonata, viola and piano intertwine to paint literary and musical allusions to rain. Amidst this shower, the text of Regenlied spills over: “Pour rain, pour down/Wake again in me those dreams/That I dreamt in childhood…”

Fairytales make many childhood dreams, as in Schumann’s Märchenbilder (“Fairytale Pictures”). A series of four meticulously crafted miniatures, Märchenbilder dives into different moods, comparing and contrasting to create small artistic gems. Tonally centred around D, we begin with a wandering tenderness in the minor. With a buoyant dotted figure, the second movement Lebhaft propels us into an active curiosity. We return to D minor for a virtuosic whirlwind in the third movement, before settling into a final movement that leaves us with childlike yearning.

Programme notes by Malika Jumbe.