Author Description

The Viola Concerto was written in 1929 for Lionel Tertis at the suggestion of Sir Thomas Beecham but Tertis rejected the manuscript and the composer and violist Paul Hindemith gave the first performance. In its design the Viola Concerto resembles Elgar’s Cello Concerto in beginning with a slow or at any rate ruminative movement followed by a fleet Scherzo, and concentrating most weight into the Finale, which ends in a mood of pathos by recalling the principal theme of the first movement. All Walton’s technical fingerprints are present: the melodic exploitation of conjunct motion and wide intervals (7ths and 9ths), sustained notes and looping arabesques, falling cadences; the added-note minor-major harmony which gives the music its bitter-sweet flavor; the syncopated and irregular rhythmic patterns, jerking the music forward in convulsive leaps. By these means, totally subjected to his artistic aim, Walton produced this highly original work. Its structure is immensely satisfying: the two dramatic outbursts in the opening slow movement; the wit of the Scherzo; and the perfectly balanced Finale, its fugal elements hinted in the bassoons’ hesitant initial theme, its climax a great central episode in which the soloist is silent, returning with the work’s opening theme, to which the main tune of the Finale now becomes accompaniment. This epilogue remains the most beautiful and moving passage in all Walton’s music; sensuous yet full of uncertainty. There is an underlying sense of frustrated longing as the predominant emotion. Whatever the hidden personal programme, it was something Walton never could repeat. In 1961, the composer rescored the Concerto for smaller orchestra, using double instead of triple woodwind, omitting one trumpet and tuba, and adding harp. The composer twice recorded the original version: with William Primrose and the Philharmonia Orchestra (EMI) and with Frederick Riddle and the London Symphony Orchestra (Decca).