Score 0571508936, piano reduction and solo part 0571505678 on sale, parts for hire

The viola is often thought of as a Cinderella instrument. Shy and retiring, it would not naturally have occurred to Arnold the extrovert as an obvious concerto vehicle. In his youth he wrote a beautiful Viola Sonata, and in 1971, to a commission from the Northern Sinfonia for a work for their principal viola, Roger Best, he wrote the fine Viola Concerto op 108. A first movement full of bustling semiquavers, and a brisk jig for the finale flank the heart of the work, an extended slow movement. This is a surprisingly forward-looking Andante, full of unexpected clashes and bitonal harmony, and patches where soloist and accompaniment are clearly at odds. Only at the end is real calm established, after the uneasy lyricism that has previously been the dominant mood.

© Piers Burton-Page

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