JAVS Summer 2014

working on the viola concerto, in what Arad described as “large scale musical larceny.” 45 The operative question, in face of our total and irrefutable love affair with this concerto is: How are we, the teachers, performers, and viola concerto appreciators, supposed to approach, enjoy, and/or teach this established masterpiece? To this, Arad replies: I love this concerto. It is a one-of-a-kind, remarkably written for the viola. It has its own musical personality, divorced, strangely enough, miraculously even, from Prokofiev’s . . . perhaps closer to an Elgar, a Bridge or a Bax. 46 He further notes that “the more we know about the music we play and its author, the more attached we are to it,” and concludes: “after all, did Prokofiev write a concerto for us?” 47 Ivo-Jan van der Werff describes the concerto as providing a wonderful opportunity for comparative listening and discussion of style, composition, compositional techniques, and pure sound through its quality, directness, and warmth. He says:

Instead, the Concerto underwent change as Walton rethought and reworked the piece. The result was a revision three decades later in which Walton clarified, expanded, and altered his original ideas. The revision was not meant to replace the original version, but to conclude a long process of personal and musical growth and development. 49 In Summation The aim of this article is not limited to telling the story of how this concerto has come to us, but to chronicle the changes to the concerto and the ensuing complexities we face in performing the work. It may never be fully understood why Walton did not oppose or even object to multiple versions of his concerto, and it would be up to readers to come to their own conclusions, should they be thus inclined. We have traced these constituent factors: • Walton did not have the musical background to immediately attain the status of a “major” composer. • He was uncomfortable rubbing elbows with “high” society, wealthy patrons and the would-be-famous artists and pseudo intellectuals that surrounded him as a young man. • He seemingly was intimidated by both Tertis and Primrose, in part as noted by Primrose’s own account. • As numerous authors have noted, Walton was strongly influenced by, and even imitated, other composer’s works, including Prokofiev and Hindemith. This fact, not so much in and of itself, illustrates a part of a more accurate picture of who Walton was as a man and as a composer. • He frequently tinkered with not only the viola concerto but other works in his

Listening to older recordings can cause quite a reaction, as the basic style is so different to what we have become used to now. The use of vibrato, portamenti, etc., can often lead to an interesting and valuable discussion as to how we emote in our music making, what techniques we can utilize, what is tasteful, etc. 48

Charletta Taylor, winner of the AVS’s first David Dalton Viola Research Competition, opines that the concerto is “working composition.” Taylor concludes:

V OLUME 30 S UMMER 2014 O NLINE I SSUE

27