Adapting Cello Repertoire: Sacrifices and Advantages, Examined Through Francis Poulenc’s Cello Sonata

Francis Poulenc’s 1940s Sonata for Cello and Piano carries a notorious reputation for its diabolical difficulty. After dreaming of stepping up to the challenge, I engraved and performed a preliminary version for viola. Most interestingly, due to its technical challenges, I believe that Poulenc’s sonata provides an excellent case study into both the sacrifices and advantages of adapting difficult cello repertoire for the viola.

The crux of a good viola arrangement of cello music involves idiomatic uses of the viola’s physical and sonic affordances, while compromising compellingly on what musical effects and pitches the cello can accomplish that the viola cannot. The lecture portion of this session will detail the critical choices made in my arranging process, regarding both viola technique and the preservation of musical content. In turn, this case study will shed light on several deeper, timeless questions about adapting repertoire, not just for the viola:

How true to the original should an arrangement stay? Are arrangements entirely new works with distinct identities? Where should the line be drawn?
What new content/meaning can arrangements (and, by extension, individual performances) bring to existing works?
How does stolen repertoire like J.S. Bach’s Cello Suites or Violin Partitas & Sonatas fit into the viola’s domain?

Luckily, many of the cello’s technical challenges in Poulenc’s sonata become assuaged or transmuted on the viola. Various fast sections can be played at pitch in lower positions, and the strings speak more easily. At the same time, some aspects actually become more difficult: cellists’ advantage of thumb position technique makes fingerboard jumps and high-position A-string playing far simpler; the sonata’s wide registral mismatches are a hallmark of Poulenc’s exhilarating, frenetic, neoclassical style that are worth preserving. In all, the work is a compelling addition to the advanced viola repertoire that I look forward to sharing.