“[...] As good as that Ravel performance is, you simply must hear the Bartok Viola Concerto which ends CD1. This work is unfairly neglected and for me is one of Bartók’s best concertos. Yes; I know it is a very late piece and was left in an unfinished state to be completed by Tibor Serly (leading some to be suspicious of its authenticity in authorship terms) but it is far more convincing than the similarly late Piano Concerto No 3 and violists have for years thanked their lucky stars they have this masterpiece which, for me, sits alongside the Walton and Hindemith’s Der Schwanendraher. In this performance from 1988, BPO principal Wolfram Christ is the soloist, as he was in the studio a year later when it was recorded by DG with the same forces. Christ brings a bold full tone and advocacy to the piece which, like me, he obviously loves – the notes tell us he first gave it with Maazel in 1981. In the Adagio religioso the playing is magnificent, the audience hushed into a spell of wonder. An attacca brings us into the Hungarian folk-tune based (or is it Romanian?) finale which also immortalizes William Primrose, who commissioned the piece by using a Scottish tune (1:42). Wolfram Christ’s pyrotechnics in this finale have to be heard to be believed and Ozawa is a perfect accompanist. I am glad we have an example of Ozawa’s Bartók, of whom he was a great advocate.[...]”

By Philip Harrison