Marc Sabbah on Bach for the viola

Bach's most famous two solo instrumental suites feature the violin and cello respectively. Double-bassists such as Edgar Meyer have had great success adapting the latter for their instrument, so it's no surprise that violists also want a slice of the pie. 

Enter Marc Sabbah - his new arrangement of Bach's six cello suites for the viola shines new light on these evergreen works, with the resulting album pressing the mind's 'novelty' and 'familiarity' buttons at the same time for a fascinating experience. 

He shared some of his thoughts about the place of the viola in Bach's life, the nitty-gritty process of actually adapting the suites for the viola, and how much we can read into its  seeming recent rise to prominence in the classical world.

You refer to numerous other composers (Bach included) having shared an interest in a ‘viola’s eye view’ of music, seeing it from the middle of the texture rather than necessarily the top down. Would you go so far as to say viola-players tend to make better composers…?

It would be imprudent of me to make such an assumption, but I can say that some of my favorite and most illustrious composers enjoyed playing the viola very much: Bach, Mozart, Dvořák, Hindemith, Paganini, and others.

How straightforward a process is it to play the Bach cello suites on the viola? Is it as simple as reading the original score an octave up?

Approaching the Cello Suites on viola requires its own unique approach. I insisted on not adopting the classic cellistic sound or timings that a larger, thicker-stringed instrument might require, nor the brilliant, effortless soprano qualities of the violin. The philosophical, whimsical, and tenor-like quality of the viola lends itself perfectly to giving these suites a robust individuality. Reading the first five suites in bass clef is a simple task, and yes, the result is an octave higher, but the interpretation is purely violistic and unique to my own understanding of the music. My aim was to encourage the viola to stand on its own two feet as a distinct instrument and voice.

The Fifth Suite in C minor, with its scordatura (lowered tuning of the A string), presents technical challenges and can be quite taxing mentally, as your fingers don't correlate with what you would normally hear in your head. The Sixth Suite was a pleasure to unravel, as I decided to lower the tonality by a fifth and was therefore obliged to be creative with voicing and texture, since this suite was originally written for a five-string cello. 

Ultimately, I had to make a series of musical choices that were formed over many years. Some came to me like an epiphany in a single minute; others were hacked out with sweat and tears. Fortunately, most passages came to me like second nature. Playing these suites on the viola is a joy, a trial, and a journey. My goal is that they resonate with you, and hopefully with Bach… if he's listening.

Looking the other way - if you were inclined to tackle the Bach violin sonatas and partitas next, what would that be like from a technical perspective?

These are also brilliant works by Johann Sebastian Bach, but they were written just before the cello suites, making them infinitesimally less mature. I can somehow sense his regard for the violin as a more muscular variant of the string family. These sonatas and partitas have something to prove, whereas the cello suites possess a more esoteric quality.

Don't get me wrong, I adore playing the three sonatas and three partitas on the viola. The music is holy and earthly at the same time. The virtuosity required to best highlight the counterpoint, contrary motion, long lines, and harmonic progressions is akin to that of a nimble violinist playing a much more responsive and smaller instrument. The viola and viola bow weigh more than their violin counterparts, so a violist needs to apply greater muscle power. To make a purely physical argument, G-forces play a role in this feat of trans-instrumental swapping. As you increase the mass of a moving object, the amount of energy needed to change directions and speeds increases proportionately. The poor violist must work significantly harder in some passages to achieve this effect, while simultaneously honoring the instrument and convincingly transforming these violin pieces into viola pieces. 

As you observe, borrowing among instruments was part of daily musical life in Bach’s time. Do you think we’ll ever uncover hard evidence of these cello works having been performed on another instrument during the composer’s lifetime?

Sadly not. While it is plausible, it probably wasn't important enough to be documented. Many of Bach's own works were published after his death. Perhaps there are undiscovered suites for solo viola waiting to be unearthed in someone's attic... 

Perhaps the most obvious question of all: why isn’t there an analogous solo viola suite from Bach - the way we have the violin and cello sets and the Partita for flute?

Excellent question. I wish we could ask him - or better yet, commission him to write some! He might simply respond: "I already wrote so many solo pieces for flute, harpsichord, organ, cello, violin, etc. Go make an arrangement and leave me alone!"

Bach was not oblivious to the beauty of the viola, nor to the talent of its practitioners. His Brandenburg Concerto No. 6, starring two solo violas, shines the spotlight on the marvelous instrument. Perhaps he never met a violist who inspired him enough to put quill to paper. Or perhaps he met one who convinced him not to.

In the Presto office we noticed that another viola player, Timothy Ridout, was on the front page of BBC Music Magazine recently, flying high after a series of acclaimed recordings (not least of Elgar’s iconic cello concerto!) - is the viola having its moment in the sun?

I believe that the viola is simply a tool through which an artist expresses what he or she holds inside. The vehicle for expression is, in my eyes, less significant than the artistry of the player. You could hand a great musician a glass and a spoon, and they could turn it into a full concert. The viola has enjoyed numerous resurgences throughout history, with notable soloists emerging in the twentieth century. Viola jokes certainly don't help the cause, as they sometimes expose a culture of closeted bitterness and, dare I say, jealousy toward those who take the instrument seriously. The viola is like anything else: too much of it can give one nausea. Just the right amount, and you're floating on a cloud… hopefully not the cloud that's blocking the sunshine from the viola.