Viola and Orchestra Music (Britain) - VAUGHAN WILLIAMS, R. / HOWELLS, H. / WALTON, W. / BOWEN, Y. (Callus, New Zealand Symphony, Taddei) (8.573876)

The ‘warm voice’ of the viola has long been associated with pioneering British performers such as Lionel Tertis, for whom Vaughan Williams wrote his tuneful and elegantly crafted Suite. Tertis famously rejected the score of Walton’s Viola Concerto, but instantly regretted his decision on hearing its lyrical warmth and piquant blend of delicacy and bite at the premiere performed by Paul Hindemith. Howells’s sombre but noble Elegy is a memorial for a student colleague killed in action during WWI. Helen Callus ‘plays with sumptuous tone matched by flawless intonation’ (Gramophone).