Walton - Viola Concerto | Antoine Tamestit | Marie Jacquot | WDR Symphony Orchestra

Walton - Viola Concerto | Antoine Tamestit | Marie Jacquot | WDR Symphony Orchestra
沃爾頓 - 中提琴協奏曲 | 安托萬塔梅斯蒂 | 瑪麗雅克 | 西德廣播交響樂團

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William Walton’s Concerto for Viola and Orchestra, performed by Antoine Tamestit and the WDR Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Marie Jacquot, Principal Conductor as of 26/27. Recorded live on June 14, 2025, at the Cologne Philharmonic Hall.

William Walton - Concerto for Viola and Orchestra

00:00:00 I. Andante comodo
00:08:50 II. Vivo, con molto preciso
00:13:17 III. Allegro moderato

WDR Symphony Orchestra
Antoine Tamestit, Viola
Marie Jacquot, Conductor

Introduction to the Work:
In his early twenties, the English composer William Walton startled his compatriots with his piece “Façade”: experimental texts set to wildly rugged music. From then on, he was regarded as an avant-gardist. Nevertheless, a few years later, Thomas Beecham, one of Britain’s most famous conductors, had the idea that Walton could write a concerto for the violist Lionel Tertis. Tertis was one of the first to bring the viola into the spotlight as a solo instrument. But because this instrument had been largely ignored by almost all composers in the 19th century for its suitability as a solo instrument, it lacked a representative repertoire. That’s where William Walton comes in. Despite his reputation as a scandalous figure, Tertis agreed to Beecham’s idea. And so the composer set to work in December 1928. He spent the winter in Amalfi, and perhaps it was the Mediterranean atmosphere there that led him to significantly soften his style in this concerto. But when Walton returns to England in the spring of 1929 and sends the score to Tertis, the latter immediately refuses to perform it. The piece is too modern, he says. But the composer is in luck: either Tertis himself or a staff member from the BBC’s music department asks none other than Paul Hindemith if he would like to perform the premiere. Hindemith, for his part, had shocked German audiences with several operas, yet he was also one of the leading violists of his time. Hindemith agreed, and so on October 3, 1929, he premiered the work in London alongside Walton, who conducted. Lionel Tertis was in the audience—and was thrilled. Contrite, he confessed to the composer that he had been too hasty in his decision. The very next year, he performed the concerto in public for the first time. With this work, Walton had created a repertoire classic that oscillates between elegiac and spirited, dynamic passages.

(Text: Otto Hagedorn)

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