At Edinburgh in December 1932 I played in the first Scottish performance of Walton’s viola concerto. Adrian Boult conducted. The applause at the end was long-sustained, and Boult amused me between recalls by whimsically suggesting that we should play the concerto all over again! I thought he was joking, and on again we went to the clamorous calls of encore…encore. We returned to bow yet another time and to my amazement Boult calmly addressed the audience: ‘I think it will be a help to us all if we play this work again. So I will ask your permission to beg the soloist and orchestra to repeat the concerto.’ I will not try to describe how deep was my astonishment at what Adrian Boult expected us to do, but after the second performance I realized that conductor and orchestra had brought about a unique experience in the history of programme performance – a whole lengthy concerto as an encore. And nothing was thrown at us! The audience listened intently and vigorously applauded the second performance. << less