Here’s an introduction to the brilliant British viola player Timothy Ridout, who puts in an appearance at the 2024 BBC Proms with a performance of Mozart’s luminous Sinfonia Concertante alongside violinist Clara-Jumi Kang.
Who is Timothy Ridout?
It’s the singing, expressive nature of the viola that most interests Timothy Ridout. Rare among his peers as a violist who didn’t transition to the instrument from the ubiquitous violin, the 27-year-old BBC New Generation Artist began his life as a singer, indulging in everything from youth choirs to musical theatre productions – including a phase in childhood when he enjoyed performing Elvis Presley songs.
Along the way he began viola lessons, after hearing a peripatetic teacher perform John Williams’ Harry Potter theme at his school, but it wasn’t until age 13 or 14, as his breaking voice was becoming more unpredictable, that he became serious about the instrument, aware that he could ‘sing’ through it.
‘I think of playing the viola in completely the same vein as expressing myself vocally, and that's what actually drove me to practise so much – to try to emulate that sound, and to achieve the freedom of singing on the viola,’ he explains.
Where did he study?
Prior to this epiphany, Ridout held little interest for the instrument, by his own admission practising inconsistently. But once the spark was lit, there was no stopping an obsession that led him through a rapid and hugely formative five years.
FIrst there was study at the Royal Academy of Music Junior Department, under Jonathan Barrett; then a place as principal viola of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. He then to quit school aged 17 to begin a four-year degree at the Academy proper studying with Martin Outram (‘Despite being quite a good school student, I had no interest in the different subjects any more – I just wanted to learn about music’).
At age 19, Ridout won the Cecil Aronowitz Viola Competition. That was followed two short years later by an even higher profile win at the Lionel Tertis Competition, and further study with Nobuko Imai at the Kronberg Academy (‘It was her attitude as a human being and as a musician that I really took away from her’).
Which works does Timothy Ridout perform?
Now a passionate advocate for an instrument that despite numerous outstanding champions over the last 100 years continues in some quarters to be unfairly dismissed, Ridout is determined to draw attention to the viola’s warm timbres. Following 2021’s A Poet’s Love, a recording of Prokofiev and Schumann vocal transcriptions with pianist Frank Dupree, in 2023 Ridout released a recording of Elgar’s famous Cello Concerto performed on the viola, alongside Ernest Bloch’s Suite for Viola and Orchestra with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Martyn Brabbins on Harmonia Mundi.
So why record another transcription, particularly when there is a wealth of little-known viola repertoire ripe for the picking? ‘I hope to enable more people to discover the viola,’ he explains simply. ‘It's a beautiful instrument, and I'll be very happy if people stumble across these recordings and listen to the viola, an instrument they might not otherwise have explored, because of the piece. There are reams of original viola repertoire that I want to record as well in the future. But I'm particularly excited about introducing this transcription.’
Following in Lionel Tertis's footsteps
Far from being a blasphemous appropriation of a much-loved concerto, the transcription performed by Timothy Ridout was penned in 1929 by legendary British violist Lionel Tertis – namesake of the competition which in many ways sealed Ridout’s reputation – and was endorsed by Elgar himself as ‘admirably done’ and ‘fully effective on the instrument’.
- Lionel Tertis featured high in our list of the greatest viola players of all time
‘All of the melodies are in very nice registers for the viola,’ Ridout confirms. ‘A lot of it stays in the same octave, and by tuning the bottom C string down to a B flat, the third movement is completely original. Because the notes aren’t jumping about the fingerboard as they do on the cello, there’s a certain ease to the viola version, which makes it sparkle and dance – it’s very elegant.
'Of course, I have that depth of cello sound in my ear – and the viola is never going to have exactly the same depth. But for elements lost, others are gained. I first played it in concert around a year before the recording and getting to play that iconic, climactic run in the first rehearsal was the most fantastic feeling.’
‘We do have less music by famous composers'
Despite the Tertis transcription being in existence for almost a century, there have been very few recordings of the arrangement – Ridout has heard just one other. This new recording, then, will be an opportunity for many to hear it for the first time. Through this, moreover, Timothy Ridout hopes to develop a better understanding of the viola.
‘We do have less music by famous composers, despite having a great repertoire,’ he admits. ‘So, it's important for people to hear the instrument in familiar settings. Arrangements, historically, have been very important for viola players.’ Though he’s also quick to point out that in just the last year he’s performed no less than 17 different works for solo viola and orchestra, and ‘that’s by no means an exhaustive list’.
Indeed, Ridout’s list of repertoire for recent and forthcoming concert engagements is hugely varied, ranging from crowd-pleasing ‘bums-on-seats’ works like Berlioz's Harold in Italy – live performances of which formed the basis of a recent recording on Erato with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg conducted by John Nelson – and Mozart’s graceful Sinfonia Concertante with the likes of Janine Jansen and Johann Dalene, to Miklós Rózsa’s Viola Concerto in Frankfurt and Switzerland, and Sadao Bekku’s’s Viola Concerto in Japan.
How a busy performer manages his time
A quick scan of his schedule is headache-inducing, but Ridout approaches the whirlwind of engagements with gusto, snatching opportunities to practise in hotels and airport lounges whenever he can. ‘I recently used an empty communal sleeping room during a flight layover to do some practice – or sometimes empty train carriages, especially those little compartments on European trains, are good for practising,’ he reveals matter-of-factly.
‘I also read scores a lot on trains and planes. It’s actually a great way to memorise music, noticing small features and strengthening the detail of the piece in your mind away from your instrument.’
As for many busy string players, the days of slow, luxurious scale and etude practice are long gone, but Timothy Ridout still sets aside time for scales each day, using a technique he inherited from Nobuko Imai. ‘If you're in a dressing room and you've got five minutes of warming up time before going on stage, playing through a lot of different keys quite quickly and fluently makes you feel like you've hit every note on the instrument,’ he says. ‘I believe Nobuko heard Josef Szigeti in a dressing room doing something similar years ago and adapted it for herself.’
Chamber music commitments
Equally important to the solo engagements in Ridout’s concert schedule are his many chamber music commitments, which this season include a three-day curation at the Belfast Festival, affording him the opportunity to collaborate with his wife, fellow violist Ting-Ru Lai, plus his Tayber Trio, formed with fellow ‘Tims’, cellist Tim Posner and violinist Tim Crawford at the age of 14 at Junior Academy, and with whom he will perform Mozart’s Divertimento in E flat.
Also looming large in his schedule are engagements with the Nash Ensemble: ‘I grew up listening to them performing at Wigmore Hall as a teenager and they were idols of mine. I couldn't believe it when they asked me to play second viola in one of Mozart’s string quintets several years ago,’ he marvels. ‘Since then, I’ve done a few projects every year with them. Everyone is so experienced, so things come together very quickly, and that leaves time for a lot of spontaneity on stage.’
'All musicians should play chamber music’
I ask him whether chamber music is as important to a violist’s career today as it might have been 20 or 30 years ago, when the idea of a ‘viola soloist’ was less accepted. ‘Actually, I think it's important for all musicians to play chamber music,’ he counters. ‘It’s vital for dialogue and communication, which is essential to all music making.
'It was one of the things that inspired me to be a musician – going on a local chamber music course and playing a string quartet by Haydn with three fellow musicians who were so much more advanced than I was. As a violist you can really manipulate the direction of travel from the centre of the harmony – and occasionally you get a solo line as well!’
Such self-deprecating humour is part and parcel with the role of the violist – sitting midway between the high flying (often highly-strung) violinist, and the moody, richly sonorous cellist. But at its heart, the viola is a deeply balanced and chameleonic instrument, for it must adapt, perhaps more than any of its stringed relatives, to the players around it. The fact that Timothy Ridout has already played the Sinfonia Concertante with at least 15 different violinists in professional performances – beginning with Maxim Vengerov, no less – is testament to his instrument’s special ability to morph to its surroundings.
'As a viola player, you're forced to change'
‘My role is a balance between adapting to the violinist and keeping my own identity,’ he explains, ‘and it’s the same with all chamber music. I performed Schoenberg's Verklärte Nacht last year with Isabelle Faust playing the first violin, and this year I played it with Janine Jansen in the same role. Both are absolute gods for me, each highly expressive, but with completely different attitudes to vibrato and to the instrument.
‘One of the really interesting things about being a viola player, and undertaking so many collaborations, is that you're forced to change – which is a great thing artistically. I hope I will keep that sense of freedom throughout my life as I play these pieces, not for the tenth, but for the hundredth time.’ With such a mature attitude, this is surely inevitable.
What instrument does Timothy Ridout play?
'I play on a viola by Peregrino di Zanetto c.1565–75, on loan through Beare’s International Violin Society,' Ridout explains. 'In the spring of 2016 I reached out to them as my current instrument – a beautiful 1677 viola by Giovanni Grancino – had been loaned to me by the Royal Academy, and as I was close to graduating I knew I would have to give it back eventually.
'Beare’s were wonderful – they laid out a whole table of amazing instruments, many of them by more famous makers than Zanetto. This, though, was the viola that stood out as being the most interesting and having the most depth.
'It was certainly larger than I had imagined. It’s over 17 inches and a standard viola is around 16 and a bit. So I had to adjust to it in the beginning, but now all other instruments feel small! What I love most is the tone – some violas with a powerful or earthy C string have quite a nasal A string, which I don’t particularly like. But this instrument has an earthy C string and an open, beautiful A string.
'What’s more, its sound is infinitely varied – as I play, more and more possibilities open up. Even after six-and-a-half years I’m still discovering new and interesting palettes.'
Pics: John Millar