The viola concerto is a concerto contrasting a viola with another body, usually a full or string orchestra but sometimes smaller. Early examples of the viola concerto include among others Georg Philipp Telemann's concerto in G, and several concertos by Carl Stamitz. The first concertante work to use the viola without caution — though extreme virtuosity only later became identified as the value desired in a concerto soloist — was the violin and viola Sinfonia Concertante of Mozart.
The viola has not been a popular instrument, and like the cello suffers from problems of projection against an orchestral ensemble. According to, for instance, Alfred Einstein among others, the essence of the concerto is not the display of virtuosity but conflict and resolution, and the viola is less suited than the piano, or even the violin, to balance itself against an orchestra that is not deliberately underused by the composer. One must consider also that viola players were often violinists retreated in ranks, and viola soloists few, until fairly recently! William Walton unleashed, though he did not necessarily begin, a more substantial output of viola works in the 20th century for newer and more capable players, and these in turn — Lionel Tertis for instance — arranged works originally for other (such as Edward Elgar's cello concerto.)
Selected list of concertos and concertante works
- Malcolm Arnold
- Viola concerto with small orchestra (1971, his op. 108)
- Arnold Bax
- Phantasy for viola and orchestra (1920)
- Jirí Antonín Benda
- Viola concerto in F (about 1775)
- Ernest Bloch
- Suite for viola and orchestra (1919)
- Suite Hebraïque;
- Max Bruch
- Romance for viola and orchestra, opus 85
- Srul Irving Glick (1934-2002)
- Concerto for viola and strings
- Christoph Graupner
- Viola (or Viola d’Amore) concerto
- Paul Hindemith
- Trauermusik for viola and strings
- Kammermusik No. 5 for viola and small orchestra
- Konzertmusik for viola with chamber orchestra
- Der Schwanendreher
- Vagn Holmboe
- Viola concerto #1, M. 141, 1943 (once called Chamber Concerto No. 5)
- Viola concerto #2, M. 357, 1991–2
- Darius Milhaud
- Viola concerto with orchestra of soloists, 1929, opus 108 (a revised version — a version for larger orchestra was premiered by Monteux, conducting, Paul Hindemith, viola in Amsterdam)
- Concertino d'été, 1951, opus 311
- Second viola concerto, 1955, opus 340 (for William Primrose) (see [1])
- Thea Musgrave
- Lamenting with Ariadne for viola and chamber orchestra
- William Walton
- Viola concerto in A minor (1928–9, revised in 1961. Also premiered by Paul Hindemith)
- Richard Wernick
- Viola concerto Do not go gentle
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