Violin Concerto (Walton)


The Violin Concerto of William Walton was written in 1938–39 and dedicated to Jascha Heifetz, who performed it at its premiere on 7 December 1939 in Cleveland. Walton later re-orchestrated the concerto in 1943.

History

The concerto was written for the American virtuoso Jascha Heifetz, who commissioned the concerto in 1936. Walton started work on it in January 1938. The British Council supported the commission in 1939, intending to present the piece at the New York World's Fair. Heifetz took the view that the new composition was very intimate,with little show or bravura, and doubted whether it would come across in a vast hall holding ten thousand people. Consequently, the premiere of the original version took place in Severance Hall, Cleveland on December 7, 1939, with Heifetz on violin and the Cleveland Orchestra conducted by Artur Rodziński. Heifetz made the first recording of the piece with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra conducted by Eugene Goossens in 1942. A revised version was first performed on January 17, 1944, in Wolverhampton, England, with Henry Holst on violin and the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Malcolm Sargent.
Among the violinists who have recorded the revised version are Sir Yehudi Menuhin, Zino Francescatti, Nigel Kennedy, Tasmin Little and Joshua Bell.

Musical structure

The concerto has three movements:
  1. Andante tranquillo
  2. Presto capriccioso alla napolitana
  3. Vivace
About a half-hour in length, it is scored for violin solo and standard orchestra. Like the Viola Concerto, with which, along with Façade, the composer had made his name, the work follows a pattern of lyrical opening—scherzo—sonata-form finale.
Among the works written by Walton around the same time are the march Crown Imperial and In Honour of the City of London for double chorus and orchestra and the Second Orchestral Suite from Façade. The violin concertos of Samuel Barber, Ernest Bloch, Benjamin Britten, Karl Amadeus Hartmann, Paul Hindemith, and Walter Piston are contemporary, as are those of Berg, Schoenberg and Sessions and the second concertos of Bartók, and Prokofiev.