# Walton's Viola Concerto - Making the Case for Genius



## kmisho

I could be quite effusive about this so I'll try to keep it simple. I think William Walton's Viola Concerto is a work of genius because it grew out of a set of ideas that Walton selected, I believe, because they were difficult. How they all ended up in the same piece is beyond me as any one of them would have been in itself a sufficient starting point for a complete work.

Brilliant idea #1 - The idea of writing a viola concerto itself. There are many more concerti for violin and cello than for viola because those instruments have their own full voice well capable of carrying above a full orchestra. Despite the challenges of featuring the viola, Walton decided to take it on anyway.

Brillinat idea #2 - Major/minor conflict in the simplest terms. First dealing with this conflict in a semi-tonal, semi-modal work presents certain difficulties such as how to avoid too much major or minor to maintain the conflict notion and how to harmonize so it doesn't seem forced or trivial. Beyond this, Walton was not the first to deal with the Maj/min conflict. The uniqueness of his approach was in its utter simplicity. The basic motive for the 1st movement (which returns at the end of the 3rd movement) is made of 2 6th intervals, as follows: C over E, up a 3rd to Eb over G, then back down to C over E. The notes represented form a C chord that is both major and minor.

Brilliant idea #3 - Write in the Locrian mode. It's generally considered very difficult to write in Locrian because it's the only mode with a tritone in its tonic chord. As such the idea of a tonal Locrian cadence is nearly an oxymoron. Nevertheless, a basic feature of the last movement is that it repeatedly cadences in Locrian.

One of the things that makes a great composer is the great ideas that appear in his compositions. Many composers had better ideas and, over their careers, a lot more of them. But few single works contain as many startling ideas, ideas that were further chosen because of the challenges they present. Walton not only wrote a great piece of music, but did so while seemingly making things as difficult for himself as possible.


----------



## handlebar

I have always admired this composition and think it one of the genres best achievements.Thanks for this thread. The work does not get enough play in the concert halls and should be heard more often. 

Jim


----------



## kmisho

I wrote a paper on the last movement for a college class, about 15 years ago now, and I'm still writing about the thing. I took the rather bold step of analyzing the movement entirely in terms of modal shifts, ignoring classical tonal analysis altogether. I also discovered that the last movement is a Rondo.


----------



## World Violist

handlebar said:


> I have always admired this composition and think it one of the genres best achievements.Thanks for this thread. The work does not get enough play in the concert halls and should be heard more often.
> 
> Jim


I still stand by Rubbra's viola concerto as being one of the best viola concerti I've ever heard, Walton notwithstanding (and, for the record, I believe both to be great works, about equal actually).

Rubbra mightn't have used all the things you listed as Walton's brilliant ideas (and they are truly brilliant), but as a piece of music in and of itself it certainly stands out as one of the composer's crowning achievements.


----------



## Guest

kmisho said:


> One of the things that makes a great composer is the great ideas that appear in his compositions. Many composers had better ideas and, over their careers, a lot more of them. But few single works contain as many startling ideas, ideas that were further chosen because of the challenges they present. Walton not only wrote a great piece of music, but did so while seemingly making things as difficult for himself as possible.


I have always admired both his Viola and Violin Concerto but until your post I was not aware of the details of the composition, thank you for the info.


----------



## Sid James

Walton is one of my favourite composers, so I agree that his _Viola Concerto_ is an excellent work. The technical details outlined above go over my head because I am merely a layman, but just listening to it, one is drawn into a work that is quite dark and very moving. I might add that the concerto's slow-fast-slow structure was borrowed from Prokofiev's_ Violin Concerto No. 1_, but the Walton is still a very unique work, particularly if you compare it to other viola works by the likes of Hindemith, Martinu and Bartok (I'm not familiar with the Rubbra, I must hear that at some stage). Yes, this repertoire is not a very crowded field, but Walton's concerto is still a standout, and probably one of the most significant concertos of the C20th, for any instrument.


----------



## TresPicos

I just heard Walton's viola concerto for the first time the other day, and I was really impressed. I only noticed brilliant idea #1 myself (obviously), and I think Walton proves a point there with this concerto.


----------



## kmisho

Andante said:


> I have always admired both his Viola and Violin Concerto but until your post I was not aware of the details of the composition, thank you for the info.


If you haven't tried the Cello Concerto, make sure to. His typically meticulously crafted orchestration is bleak and icy. The best thing about it might be Walton's long-winded, inherently engaging melodic sweeps in the cello.


----------



## kmisho

Andre said:


> Walton is one of my favourite composers, so I agree that his _Viola Concerto_ is an excellent work. The technical details outlined above go over my head because I am merely a layman, but just listening to it, one is drawn into a work that is quite dark and very moving. I might add that the concerto's slow-fast-slow structure was borrowed from Prokofiev's_ Violin Concerto No. 1_, but the Walton is still a very unique work, particularly if you compare it to other viola works by the likes of Hindemith, Martinu and Bartok (I'm not familiar with the Rubbra, I must hear that at some stage). Yes, this repertoire is not a very crowded field, but Walton's concerto is still a standout, and probably one of the most significant concertos of the C20th, for any instrument.


Walton was definitely an admirer of the Prokofiev concerto, itself a fascinating work. Interestingly, there is another parallel that could not have been planned by either composer. Both were eschewed by early soloists as too modern and had delayed premieres.


----------



## TresPicos

kmisho said:


> Walton was definitely an admirer of the Prokofiev concerto, itself a fascinating work. Interestingly, there is another parallel that could not have been planned by either composer. Both were eschewed by early soloists as too modern and had delayed premieres.


Poor Walton. First he was too modern, then suddenly he was too old-fashioned. What did he have - one happy decade?


----------



## emiellucifuge

Last time I listened I did like it, ill make sure to listen again.

Another viola concerto I like is the Penderecki (1983) anyone else?


----------



## kmisho

TresPicos said:


> Poor Walton. First he was too modern, then suddenly he was too old-fashioned. What did he have - one happy decade?


Walton was neither modernist nor traditionalist and therefore fell between the cracks of the two standard opposing camps, those who demand the familiar and those who admire only the radical. A member of both sides, both tended to reject him.

I'll let you in on a little secret. Walton was one of the greatest harmonists of all time. If you have the wherewithal to analyze his harmonization in some detail, you discover that he could make wild dissonance seem plaintive through the clever use of inversion. He preferred open chords and his ear was fine-tuned (as is any good Jazz musician's) to the acoustic physics of the overtone series, both of which can be used to mask dissonance. The result of all this was that his music often seems less dissonant than it is.

Walton is somewhat unusual among composers in that he was master of no instrument. The orchestra itself was his only instrument. This is why he was also one of the greatest orchestrators of all time.


----------



## xuantu

Thanks for your insightful posts, kmisho!

I first came to know Walton's viola concerto (1928-9, revised in 1961) through a version played by Yehudi Menuhin. It is such an enigmatic work with all the transient brightness and the hazy melancholy perfused throughout. I know little about musicology--now I guess the mystic quality of this work must have something to do with the way Walton handled the major/minor conflict, the Locrian mode and harmonization that's mentioned above. For me, he is a 20th century Romanticist and a magician who knows how to weave his material.

Speaking of other modern viola concertos, I also like the haunting Penderecki (1983), the dynamic Schnittke (1985), the poetic Takemitsu (_A String Around Autumn_, 1989), the otherworldly Gubaidulina (1996) and the simplistic Steven Gerber (1996), but my favorite is absolutely the unfinished Bartók (1945, now available in three versions), a 20-minute work of enormous dimensions. Recently, I "rediscovered" the wonderful concerto by Hans Henkemans (1954), very charismatic. It seems that the shortage of violists' warhorses is gradually becoming history.


----------



## kmisho

xuantu said:


> Thanks for your insightful posts, kmisho!
> 
> I first came to know Walton's viola concerto (1928-9, revised in 1961) through a version played by Yehudi Menuhin. It is such an enigmatic work with all the transient brightness and the hazy melancholy perfused throughout. I know little about musicology--now I guess the mystic quality of this work must have something to do with the way Walton handled the major/minor conflict, the Locrian mode and harmonization that's mentioned above.


That does like the effects these things would produce. Maj/min conflict, especially the way he handles it, has a sad-and-happy-at-the-same-time affect. Locrian is rather hazy and unrooted.



> For me, he is a 20th century Romanticist and a magician who knows how to weave his material.


There's a definite romantic tug but his emotionalism is modulated. He doesn't gush like Rachmaninov.



> Speaking of other modern viola concertos, I also like the haunting Penderecki (1983), the dynamic Schnittke (1985), the poetic Takemitsu (_A String Around Autumn_, 1989), the otherworldly Gubaidulina (1996) and the simplistic Steven Gerber (1996), but my favorite is absolutely the unfinished Bartók (1945, now available in three versions), a 20-minute work of enormous dimensions. Recently, I "rediscovered" the wonderful concerto by Hans Henkemans (1954), very charismatic. It seems that the shortage of violists' warhorses is gradually becoming history.


The Schnittke has been a favorite of mine for a long time. It almost seems like a more modernistic brother to Walton's work.

I have to admit I've never listened to Takemitsu. But I run into that name more and more and I may have to check him out soon.


----------



## World Violist

emiellucifuge said:


> Another viola concerto I like is the Penderecki (1983) anyone else?


The cadenza from that concerto is often used as a stand-alone piece, and it's the only part of the concerto I know so far. But man, it's great.


----------



## Matthviola

Hello, when you say : "The basic motive for the 1st movement (which returns at the end of the 3rd movement) is made of 2 6th intervals, as follows: C over E, up a 3rd to Eb over G, then back down to C over E ", can you explain in details with the score what you are speaking about, please ? Thanks a lot -


----------



## Matthviola

Hello, when you say : "The basic motive for the 1st movement (which returns at the end of the 3rd movement) is made of 2 6th intervals, as follows: C over E, up a 3rd to Eb over G, then back down to C over E ", can you explain in details with the score what you are speaking about, please ? Thanks a lot -


----------



## Pugg

Hi Matt, I do hope you get your answer, this topic is 7 years old and most posters are not active .


----------



## Mike Strand

I agree wholeheartedly with kmisho's here. This concerto is easy to find on YouTube, and well worth listening to. About 27 minutes.


----------



## 89Koechel

Well, I agree with Mike Strand, and hope that the Walton Viola Concerto will be discovered, or re-discovered, by whoever has the strength to FIND it. Also, maybe I could recommend an old recording, with Paul Doktor, once-available on the Odyssey, classical LP label.


----------



## mikeh375

I like it too. It's more of an acquired taste than say the violin concerto imv, but as rewarding once you get to know it. The cello concerto is rather good too.


----------



## vincula

I enjoy Walton's viola concerto, either with Yuri Bashmet or with Nobuko Imai.

















His cello concerto's great too. Put an ear to this album:









Regards,

Vincula


----------



## Joachim Raff

Paul Neubauer (viola)
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
Andrew Litton

I have listened to most recordings and this is my favourite. The coupling is not desirable though.


----------



## Roger Knox

xuantu said:


> Speaking of other modern viola concertos, I also like the haunting Penderecki (1983), the dynamic Schnittke (1985), the poetic Takemitsu (_A String Around Autumn_, 1989), the otherworldly Gubaidulina (1996) and the simplistic Steven Gerber (1996), but my favorite is absolutely the unfinished Bartók (1945, now available in three versions), a 20-minute work of enormous dimensions. Recently, I "rediscovered" the wonderful concerto by Hans Henkemans (1954), very charismatic. It seems that the shortage of violists' warhorses is gradually becoming history.


The standard of viola playing has gone up so much since my teens, 50 years ago! No need for viola jokes any more. When played really well, the viola can actually be the most attractive of bowed string instruments. I wish there were viola concertos or other concertante works by Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Barber, Dutilleux. The Walton is still my favourite, and there are now many other fine works.


----------

