Viola Concerto for viola and piano (1962 revised version) by William Walton
Revised by the composer and Frederick Riddle. Corrected and edited by Christopher Wellington. Published by Oxford University Press.
William Walton (1902-83) was an English composer known for his orchestral and theater music. He was a meticulous perfectionist, resulting in a small, yet polished oeuvre. His music is often regarded as continuing the idiom of Elgar, though he sometimes incorporated into his romantic and rhythmically vital style influences of jazz and modernism.
Walton’s Viola Concerto (1929), the first of his three string concertos, is also his most popular. His writing combines a resolutely English melodicism with the modernism of Prokofiev and Hindemith. These avant-garde tendencies put off the original dedicatee, violist Lionel Tertis, and the premiere took place with Hindemith himself as soloist. Tertis later championed the work. Today, it is regarded as a pillar of the solo viola repertory. This publication includes the standard 1962 revisions by Walton and Frederick Riddle, in a new edition by Christopher Wellington. Master level, Grade 6.
