The Viola Concerto by William Walton was written in 1929 for the famous violist Lionel Tertis. The concerto was modelled on Prokofiev's First Violin Concerto, which Walton admired. Tertis initially shunned the work and the premiere was performed by Paul Hindemith, who later championed the work, on 3 October 1929, with the composer conducting. Tertis later took the work up himself. The concerto carries the dedication "To Christabel" (Christabel Mc...
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The Viola Concerto by William Walton was written in 1929 for the famous violist Lionel Tertis. The concerto was modelled on Prokofiev's First Violin Concerto, which Walton admired. Tertis initially shunned the work and the premiere was performed by Paul Hindemith, who later championed the work, on 3 October 1929, with the composer conducting. Tertis later took the work up himself. The concerto carries the dedication "To Christabel" (Christabel McLaren, Lady Aberconway).
The work follows the standard three-movement format for a concerto:
The work is generally considered one of the more difficult in the repertoire. Numerous recordings have been made of the piece, by such violists as Yuri Bashmet, Nobuko Imai, Jonathan L. Murray, Lawrence Power, Paul Neubauer, and William Primrose. Many soloists better known for their violin playing have also recorded the concerto, including Nigel Kennedy, Maxim Vengerov, and Yehudi Menuhin.
The orchestration of the concerto was revised in 1961 by Walton...
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