The Viola Concerto by William Walton was written in 1929 and first performed at the Queen's Hall, London on 3 October of that year by Paul Hindemith as soloist and the composer conducting. It had been written with the violist Lionel Tertis in mind, and he took the work up after initially rejecting it. The concerto established Walton as a substantial figure in British music and has been recorded by leading violists internationally. Walton revised the instrumentation of the concerto in 1961, lightening the orchestral textures. Background and first performances In 1929 William Walton was regarded as an avant-garde composer, best known for Façade (1923), which had been a succès de scandale at its premiere. His exuberant and harmonically edgy concert overture Portsmouth Point (1926) maintained his reputation as an enfant terrible. Towards the end of 1928 the conductor Sir Thomas Beecham suggested that Walton should write a concerto for the violist Lionel Tertis, for whom composers including Vaughan Williams and Bax had written major works. After some preliminary discussion Walton agreed. He wrote the concerto while wintering in Amalfi, Italy, with his friends and patrons the Sitwells. He wrote in December 1928 that he was working hard on the piece, and in February 1929 that he had finished the second movement. He said he considered the concerto potentially his finest work to date, although whether this assessment would hold true would depend on how the third movement turned out. On his return to England in the spring of 1929, Walton sent the completed concerto to Tertis, who immediately rejected it because of its modernity. Tertis later realised his error and wrote in his autobiography: Walton was so disappointed by Tertis's refusal that he considered recasting the concerto for violin and orchestra. It is not clear where the suggestion came from that the German composer and violist Paul Hindemith should be invited to premiere the work. In 1974 Tertis wrote in his memoirs that he had recommended Hindemith to Walton, but Walton had recalled in 1962 that the idea came from Edward Clark of the BBC music department. Clark sent the manuscript to Hindemith, who agreed to give the first performance. The first performance was at the Proms at the Queen's Hall, London, on 3 October 1929; Hindemith was the soloist and the Henry Wood Symphony Orchestra was conducted by the composer. Hindemith did not possess an immaculate technique, but