JAVS Spring 2022

old version please advise them first that the composer infinitely prefers the new version.” 15 Consequently, most performances and recordings of the work from 1962 onwards have utilized the revised scoring. More recently, however, performers have re-visited the original orchestration, and at least one modern recording—made by Lawrence Power in 2007—has used that version. It garnered glowing reviews: “[A] new recording of the superior original orchestration is very welcome indeed . . . the richness of the original orchestration comes across with greater delicacy and impact than it has ever had before.” 16 Wellington believes “both scores have their individual merits; the 1929 score, which established the concerto’s original impact and reputation, and the 1962 revision . . . which reflects the composer’s later preferences in instrumentation.” 17 Wellington and OUP are happy to promote both orchestrations despite Walton’s strongly stated preference, but not both versions of the solo viola part. The publication of the revised version was complicated by a misunderstanding between Walton and OUP. When preparing the new orchestration in 1961, Walton asked OUP to add Riddle’s solo part to the new score. To help the process of rescoring, OUP had prepared a dummy score for him with the solo line already copied in; but it was the wrong one. It was the 1929 original rather than Riddle’s version. Further confusion ensued as Walton decided to make some alterations to that “wrong” solo line, for example adding octave double stops and putting some notes up an octave.

By the time Walton had noticed the mistake, it was too late—the new edition of the full score had gone to print. So, from 1964 (when they were published) until 2001, the solo part sold with the piano reduction, and the solo part in the full score, were from the 1929 edition, with about 30 added instructions and changes. The Riddle solo part was finally reinstated in the William Walton Edition, published in 2002. That part includes tempo indications and expression marks from both the 1929 and 1962 versions but doesn’t include any of the original articulation marks or slurs. Because of this, it offers players a rather confusing and incomplete picture of the work. Examples of the changes Riddle made are shown in Example 3 and 5–8, which compare the 2002 publication with the 1929 original. Adding and Subtracting Walton’s use of tenuto markings and separate bows in Example 3 arguably produce a more deliberate parlando (spoken) character than Riddle’s slurred version. The tenuto marking is used extensively by both Hindemith in Kammermusik no. 5, and by Prokofiev in his Violin Concerto no.1—as shown in Example 2 and Example 4—to create a similar effect. In bars 13 and 17 of Example 3, Walton’s rhythmic interplay between the gently rocking octaves of the solo viola (playing in simple time) and the lilting figure in the orchestra (playing in compound time) are both completely removed by Riddle.

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