JAVS Summer 2014

In regard to the viola part, the 1962 re orchestration included the 1929 original solo viola part as written by Walton, not the solo viola line from the 1937 version as created by Frederick Riddle and as intended by the composer. The fiasco, through oversight and miscommunication, is well summarized by Dunham and thoroughly detailed by Wellington. 38 This 1962 re-issue, of course, came with the piano reduction score also with the “wrong” solo viola part included. The first performance with the new orchestration came on January 18, 1962, by John Coulling, violist with the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Sir Malcolm Arnold. 39 In regard to the orchestration, Walton did not withdraw the 1929 publication but instead wrote to Alan Frank of OUP: “I agree about the Viola Concerto, that the new version need not cancel out the original—it just may be on occasion more convenient.” 40 This gave weight to the argument that the re-scoring was to promote more performances. The acceptance of the new orchestration has been favorable. Even Walton, in the end, favored the 1962 orchestration. Yet, others, including Malcolm Sargent, have stated their preference for the original 1929 orchestration. Dunham notes: I really like the original, and miss the contrabassoon in the last movement very much in the 1962 scoring! In my opinion it is . . . [written] by a young man at a time when much was changing in

I like “both” men, but in this case, kind of miss the young guy! Anyway, what a luxury to have both! 41 Both orchestrations are available from Oxford University Press. There is much to be said for each version—the 1929 edition displays youthful British grit while the 1962 edition enjoys a delicacy and recognition of newer colors, especially with the use of the harp. Of the plethora of recent recordings, only the 2007 recording by Lawrence Power and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra returns to the 1929 orchestration. Wellington’s words are the ultimate reality: “Whichever version is performed, William Walton’s Concerto for Viola and Orchestra is surely established as a classic of the twentieth century and a major pinnacle of the viola repertory.” 42 Inspiration and Models Walton was very coy about his inspiration, barely crediting Bernard Shore for his assistance, and he gave only a glancing acknowledgment to the influence of Hindemith’s Kammermusik No. 5 or the more specific influence of Prokofiev’s first violin concerto on the composition of the viola concerto. The rhetoric of novelty can seem to benefit a young composer when it is perceived that melodies, harmonic scheme, and structure are all new. That is not how great music is created—it does not come in a dream, out of nowhere. 43 Atar Arad, in an extraordinary piece in The Strad , thoroughly and quite convincingly draws close parallels with Prokofiev’s concerto completed in 1917 and premiered in 1923. 44 This comparison goes not only into the frame and basic structure, but also to the thematic material and even bar numbers. It is as if Walton placed the Prokofiev score in front of him while

British/European music . . . . As a much older man, of course, Walton had the experience of a rich and rewarding lifetime, and the redrafted score is beautiful: that of a mature and wise man!

V OLUME 30 S UMMER 2014 O NLINE I SSUE

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