Viola Concerto

Bartók’s haunting Viola Concerto was commissioned early in 1945 by the Scottish-born virtuoso William Primrose, but remained incomplete at the time of the composer’s death in the same year. Because the surviving manuscript remained in a somewhat fragmentary state, it required considerable intervention by Bartók’s close friend Tibor Serly to create a viable performing version of the work; this eventually received its premiere in Minneapolis in 1949, with Primrose as soloist. In line with the Piano Concerto No. 3, composed during the same period, the Viola Concerto offers a simpler, more accessible musical language and a greater transparency of orchestral texture than in Bartók’s earlier works. Of the three movements, which follow each other without a break, the opening dark-hued “Moderato” is the most extended, and also features a solo cadenza. A deeply contemplative mood characterises the second movement “Adagio religioso”, though a brief middle section explores more anguished emotions. In the busily active finale, “Allegro vivace”, Bartók once again invokes the spirit of a Hungarian-flavoured rustic dance, and a brilliant flurry of fast notes in the solo viola brings the work to an exciting and exhilarating end.