played with strong character, a full tone and great emotion. The composer later wrote that Hindemith's "technique was marvellous, but he was rough—no nonsense about it. He just stood up and played." Tertis, who attended the premiere, realised that he had made a mistake in rejecting the concerto and soon took it up. When it was selected for performance at the International Society for Contemporary Music festival in Liège in September 1930, Tertis was the soloist, with Walton conducting. Over the next three years Tertis gave five more performances of the concerto. 1961 revision Walton was given to revising his works after their first performances, and in 1961 he thinned the orchestration of the Viola Concerto, reducing the woodwind from triple to double, omitting one trumpet and the tuba, and adding a harp. The revised version was first performed at the Royal Festival Hall, London, on 18 January 1962, with John Coulling as soloist and the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent. There is some uncertainty about the solo part in this version. The violist Frederick Riddle, with whom Walton performed the work many times, made some adjustments to the solo line. He understood that Walton approved his changes and intended to incorporate them in the score of the revision, but when it was published, in 1962, the original line remained intact. In a 2006 study of the concerto, James F. Dunham attributes the omission of Riddle's revisions to a mistake by the publishers. A 2001 biography of Walton reports the composer's specific preference for his original version, without Riddle's alterations. Analysis The concerto carries the dedication "To Christabel" (the Hon. Mrs Henry McLaren, with whom Walton had a romantic though platonic friendship). The original scoring is for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, cor anglais, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani and strings. The 1961 revision (published in 1962) stipulates three flutes (one doubling piccolo), oboe, cor anglais, two clarinets (second doubling bass clarinet), two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, harp and strings. The playing time of the concerto is about 25 minutes. In his study of Walton, Michael Kennedy comments that in its design the Viola Concerto resembles Elgar's Cello Concerto in beginning with a slow ("or at any rate ruminative") movement followed by a quick scherzo, and concentrating most weight into the finale, "which