Viola Concerto

The most husky-voiced and reticent of stringed instruments, the viola was not an obvious choice for a composer noted for his extroverted, jazz-inspired music. Indeed, it was not Walton’s own choice for his first concerto, but that of the conductor Thomas Beecham, who suggested that he should write one for the viola’s leading champion of the day, Lionel Tertis. It was a canny suggestion, as the viola’s character inspired Walton to write a work that was introverted, yet one of his most poignantly expressive, even anguished. Walton’s love of jazz is hinted at in the theme that opens and closes the first movement, with its bittersweet major-minor inflection; then more obviously in the syncopated rhythms of the lively second movement. Another source of inspiration was Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 1, in particular its unusual structure of having a fast movement framed by a pair of soulful slow movements, of which the final movement includes a ravishing recollection of the principal theme of the first. And like the Prokofiev (though Walton would not have known this), the lyricism of both concertos was inspired by love—in Walton’s case, for Christabel McLaren, to whom he dedicated his work. Tertis, sadly, failed to recognise the Viola Concerto’s quality, and the soloist at its 1929 premiere was fellow composer Paul Hindemith. In 1962, Walton revised the Concerto—already recognised as one of his greatest works—by slimming down the brass section, expanding the woodwind and adding a harp.