The Violin Concerto of William Walton (1902–1983) was written in 1938–39 and reorchestrated in 1943. It has three movements:
The concerto was written for Jascha Heifetz, who commissioned it in 1936. The premiere of the original version took place on December 7, 1939, in Cleveland, with Heifetz on violin and the Cleveland Orchestra conducted by Artur Rodziński. Heifetz made the first recording of the piece, with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra c...
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The Violin Concerto of William Walton (1902–1983) was written in 1938–39 and reorchestrated in 1943. It has three movements:
The concerto was written for Jascha Heifetz, who commissioned it in 1936. The premiere of the original version took place on December 7, 1939, in Cleveland, with Heifetz on violin and the Cleveland Orchestra conducted by Artur Rodziński. Heifetz made the first recording of the piece, with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra conducted by Eugène Aynsley Goossens, in 1942. The revised version premiered on January 17, 1944, in Wolverhampton, England, with Henry Holst on violin and the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Malcolm Sargent. The revised version has been recorded by such violinists as Sir Yehudi Menuhin, Nigel Kennedy, and Joshua Bell.
The concerto, about a half-hour in length, is scored for violin solo and standard orchestra (the revision pared down the percussion section from the original). Like the Viola Concerto (1929), with which, along with...
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