Showcasing the Viola

The viola is not the most conspicuous of solo instruments. Important opportunities to hear the instrument in concerto, sonata and chamber music roles, however, begin this week.

Today, Peter Hatch begins a three-concert “Magic of the Viola” series in Pacific Palisades, and Thursday through Sunday, Pinchas Zukerman will give the first West Coast performances of Miklos Rozsa’s Viola Concerto, with Andre Previn and the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Music Center.

“It’s very listenable and very playable, from all points of view,” says Zukerman, describing the concerto that he and Previn premiered in Pittsburgh in 1984. “It is very melodic and ultra-thematic, with some Bartok elements, and a little Hindemith when the viola plays alone.”

According to Zukerman, the reason the viola is not a more prominent solo instrument is because not enough has been written for it, and the reason composers have largely ignored the instrument in concertos is because it is difficult to hear its alto voice in full climaxes.

Zukerman, of course, is not circumscribed by the limited solo possibilities of the viola, as he has earned his wide reputation mostly on violin. The viola, however, “is a very natural instrument for me from the technical standpoint,” he says. He also advises young musicians that “there is more need for good violists than for average violinists.”

The Israeli-born, Juilliard-trained musician, who will be 40 this year, is also a conductor. Last spring, Zukerman ended a seven-year tenure as music director of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.

“I felt that my time was up,” he says. Zukerman cites an unending administrative struggle to produce the support for his artistic goals as his chief motive in leaving.

“I was trying to beat the system and look to the year 2000, rather than 1990. I think I was just too impulsive at the time,” Zukerman reports. “Musically, I was very happy.”

He is very concerned about the economic and sociological problems confronting orchestras. For the future of viola playing, he is happy to note that Alexander Schneider has established a new competition in New York, for which entrants must play both violin and viola.

Like Zukerman, Peter Hatch entered Juilliard as a violin major and studied with Ivan Galamian. Alongside his violin studies, however, Hatch worked at the viola, and now he considers himself exclusively a violist.

“Actually, the word violin is a diminutive of viola ,” he notes, assigning pride of place to his chosen instrument.

Schools of viola instruction, however, are “aimed entirely at orchestral playing and auditions,” Hatch claims. “You have to look for your own way of sound production and adapt violin technique.”

That is a point that Zukerman also makes. “I don’t think the teaching, per se, on the viola, is as good or as far spread as it is for the violin,” he remarks, adding that he believes studying both violin and viola is a good idea for all students of either instrument, both in terms of musical and technical development, and as a practical matter.

Hatch begins “The Magic of the Viola” this afternoon at Palisades Lutheran Church. The program is devoted to Brahms, with the Opus 120 Sonatas and a transcription of the Opus 78 Sonata (originally for violin), accompanied by Spanish pianist Juan Jose Torrecillas.

The program for Jan. 17 will concentrate on the music of Mozart, though exactly which pieces is unsettled now, with the withdrawal of violinist Andre Granat owing to a scheduling conflict. (“People’s schedules are so temporary ,” Hatch laments.)

The series, which is being presented under the auspices of the Teresa de Rogatis Foundation, ends Jan. 24 with Brahms’ C-minor Quartet, the Dohnanyi Serenade and Hindemith’s Viola Sonata. Information: (213) 665-2332.

GLASS OPERAS: Houston Grand Opera, which scored at least a publicity coup with the premiere of John Adams’ “Nixon in China,” will present the first six performances of Philip Glass’ “The Making of the Representative of Planet 8” in July. The opera, a co-production with the English National Opera and Amsterdam Music Theater, has a libretto by Doris Lessing, based on her own novel of the same title. Minoru Terada Domberger will stage the work, with design assistance from Eiko Ishioka.

The same month, Seattle Opera offers the West Coast premiere of Glass’ much-touted 1980 opera about Gandhi, “Satyagraha.” American tenor Douglas Perry, who created the title role, will sing all four performances. Bruce Ferden conducts, with staging by Harry Silverstein, designs by Robert Israel and choreography by Clare West.

DEFECTOR’S DEBUT: Soviet dancer Andrei Ustinov, who defected in the United States while on tour with the Moscow Ballet in October, makes his West Coast debut next weekend in Santa Rosa. He will appear with Deborah Palesch, director of the Santa Rosa Ballet, in the Russian “Pas d’Esclave.” The performances, sponsored by the Matanzas Creek Winery, include a “Nutcracker in Miniature” danced by children.

DELOS MOVE: Delos International, celebrating its 15th anniversary, is moving its corporate headquarters from Santa Monica to Chatsworth this month. The move will allow expansion in all phases for the classical and jazz record company, which plans to release between 30 and 40 new CDs in 1988.