JAVS Spring 2022

Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto no.1, premiered in 1923, was another influence. The two works share a similar structure and in both, the opening first movement material reappears at the close of the last movement, as can be seen in Examples 1 and 2. Walton’s opening melody is remarkably like the sognando (dreamy) first theme of the Prokofiev.

Feature Article prevented Walton from saying anything at the time. 11 But a letter from Walton to OUP in 1946 about Primrose’s version implies the composer was happy to accept his changes: “Bits and pieces have been shoved up an octave or are in octaves, etc. And more often than not with good effect.” 12 In the same letter, Walton even wondered whether he should recommend Primrose’s “various tricks”

to Yehudi Menuhin who was preparing the piece for performance. Publication In 1937, the Decca Record Company decided to record the concerto. The obvious

Example 1: Walton, Viola Concerto, I. Andante comodo, mm. 3–7.

candidate for soloist was Tertis, but he had recently announced his retirement. He suggested Riddle, whom Beecham would soon appoint as Principal Viola of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. For his recording and subsequent performances, Riddle made changes to the solo part; these were mostly matters of phrasing and bowing, rather than changes to, or additions of, notes. According to Christopher Wellington, Walton “is known to have found these changed articulations an improvement on the previously published ones, both his own and the Tertis version.” 13 Riddle was asked to submit his solo part to OUP for publication, and this part was incorporated into the 1938 published edition. The Riddle version of the solo part was the only one available with the piano reduction from 1938 until 1962, when a misunderstanding between OUP and Walton saw it removed from publication. Walton was always tinkering with his music and made major revisions of his works throughout his life. In 1962, he completely re-orchestrated the concerto, reducing the number of woodwind and brass, but adding a harp. These changes were not universally admired; critics felt that in updating it to his later, more suave style, the piece lost some of the character of the original. Renowned critic Ronald Crichton felt that “the smoothing and streamlining tone[d] down an acerbity that was very much part of the music.” 14 Walton didn’t forbid performances of the first orchestration but expressed a strong preference for this new version. He told OUP that “if anyone specifies the

Example 2: Prokofiev, Violin Concerto no. 1, I. Andantino, mm. 3–8.

Walton remained deeply grateful to Hindemith for playing the work, but said later, “his technique was marvelous, but he was rough—no nonsense about it. He just stood up and played.” 7 Lionel Tertis was at the premiere and was similarly critical: “The notes were all there, but the tone was cold and unpleasant.” 8 Tertis would make amends for his early rejection of the work by giving numerous performances of the concerto, much to Walton’s delight. After a performance in Germany, Walton wrote to the pianist Harriet Cohen: “[y]ou have no conception what Tertis has made out of the work. If you liked it before, you will pass out when you hear him play it. I nearly did myself!” 9 At another performance, in 1932, Edward Elgar was present, though the elderly composer was not impressed with the concerto. He “paced up and down behind the orchestra gallery during the performance, deploring that such music should be thought fit for a stringed instrument.” 10 Early Performers Lionel Tertis, Bernard Shore, and William Primrose were notable early performers of the work. But it is Frederick Riddle, the violist who first recorded the concerto, whose influence has proven the most lasting effect on the work’s published form, and consequently on later performances. Tertis, Primrose, and Riddle all made numerous changes to the solo part. Both Tertis and Primrose put several passages up an octave and added double stops to others, though Primrose claimed that he discovered much later than Walton had not liked his alterations. He felt it may have been an “innate delicacy of feeling” that had

Journal of the American Viola Society / Vol. 38, No. 1, Spring 2022

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