Piston, Harbison & Adler - Viola Concertos

Walter PISTON (1894-1976) 

Concerto for Viola and Orchestra

John HARBISON (b.1938) 

Viola Concerto

Samuel ADLER (b.1928)

Concerto for Viola and Orchestra

Randolph Kelly (viola)

Latvian National Symphony Orchestra

Aleksandrs Vilumanis

This enterprising collection features the fine viola playing of Randolph Kelly in three concertos of varying provenance. The “classic” among them is Walter Piston’s typically well-crafted and enjoyable work, graced by a really beautiful Adagio con fantasia slow movement. John Harbison’s concerto is less impressive, though certainly characteristic of its composer and by no means awful. Its first movement sports an impressive build-up of emotional anguish, but as so often happens with this sometimes charmless artist, the tone remains comparatively grey and unvaried. For instance, it’s very hard to hear any joy in the finale’s “gioioso” indication–just doggedness. Samuel Adler’s concerto is another story altogether: here textural and tuneful elements successfully rub shoulders. Compared to Harbison the range of contrast is wider, the orchestration more colorful (listen to the inventive writing for solo accompanied by temple blocks in the finale). I would say that it represents a major contribution to the genre.

Considering the prospect that this music must have been very unfamiliar to the orchestra and conductor, the performances are surprisingly good. Randolph Kelly, principal violist of the Pittsburgh Symphony and dedicatee of the Adler concerto, plays with a fulsome tone and easy mastery of each work’s individual difficulties. The orchestra also copes quite well, though the recording venue seems to project an artificially wide front-to-back depth to the soundstage that relegates the brass to far right field, and balances aren’t always ideal. But none of these quibbles can minimize the importance of adding three concertos by three major composers to the recorded repertoire of this lovely, neglected step-child of the string section. If any recent release offers eloquent testimony to the vitality of contemporary music today, to say nothing of the importance of recordings in disseminating new works for less popular but still worthy instruments, this one does. 

David Hurwitz