Lionel Tertis in Queen's Hall - 3 October, 1929

from My Viola and I: a complete autobiography / Lionel Tertis, pages 36,37:

I remember that, when Walton came to me with it [Walton’s viola concerto] and I refused the honour [of giving the first performance], he was generous enough not to seem to take it too much amiss but asked me to suggest someone else to undertake the performance. I immediately though of Paul Hindemith, a well-known and much-talked-of composer and a viola-player too. So it was that Hindemith played the work for the first time at Queen’s Hall. I was a member of the audience, and felt great disappointment with his playing. The notes, certainly, were all there, but the tone was cold …   more >>

cite as

Lionel Tertis, My Viola and I: a complete autobiography / Lionel Tertis (Great Britain, 1974), p. 36,37. https://led.kmi.open.ac.uk/entity/lexp/1424343440314 accessed: 29 March, 2024

location of experience: Queen's Hall

Listeners

Lionel Tertis
Violist
1876-1975

Listening to

hide composers
Viola Concerto
written by William Walton, Sir William Walton
performed by Paul Hindemith

Experience Information

Date/Time 3 October, 1929
Medium live
Listening Environment indoors, in public

Notes

The Viola Concerto by William Walton was written in 1929 for the violist Lionel Tertis at the suggestion of Sir Thomas Beecham. When Tertis rejected the manuscript, composer and violist Paul Hindemith gave the first performance.


Originally submitted by tlisboa on Thu, 19 Feb 2015 10:57:20 +0000
Approved on Tue, 12 Jan 2016 14:25:06 +0000