Uploaded December 2025 | Updated September 2026, 4 days ago
00:03 I. Allegro moderato
14:43 II. Allegretto grazioso
23:32 III. Allegro con brio
Lawrence Power, viola
BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Martyn Brabbins
This score video is provided for educational (non-commercial) use only, using the edition produced as part of Scottish conductor Alasdair Mitchell's 2002 doctoral thesis at the University of Edinburgh (era.ed.ac.uk/items/2c0225b8-226a-4764-ae87-5e5e89a0cc4b).
John Blackwood McEwen (1868-1948) was a Scottish composer and educator, most notable for his decades-long tenure teaching composition at the Royal Academy of Music in London. For more information about McEwen, see my score video of his fourth string quartet: youtu.be/Dvk6pWg_VAc
According to Mitchell, McEwen's viola concerto, written in 1901 when the composer was 33 years old, was composed in response to a request from the young British viola virtuoso Lionel Tertis, whose commissions played a significant role in establishing the viola as a solo instrument. In a sense, it is a landmark work in British music history, predating better-known viola works commissioned by Tertis such as William Walton's concerto and Ralph Vaughan Williams' "Flos campi"; however, it faded into complete obscurity after its 1901 premiere until this recording by the renowned violist Lawrence Power in 2011.
Although not as adventurous as many of the works he would compose later in his career, the concerto is a significant, meticulously orchestrated work which undoubtedly deserves a place in the viola standard repertoire.
00:03 I. Allegro moderato
14:43 II. Allegretto grazioso
23:32 III. Allegro con brio
Lawrence Power, viola
BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Martyn Brabbins
This score video is provided for educational (non-commercial) use only, using the edition produced as part of Scottish conductor Alasdair Mitchell's 2002 doctoral thesis at the University of Edinburgh (era.ed.ac.uk/items/2c0225b8-226a-4764-ae87-5e5e89a0cc4b).
John Blackwood McEwen (1868-1948) was a Scottish composer and educator, most notable for his decades-long tenure teaching composition at the Royal Academy of Music in London. For more information about McEwen, see my score video of his fourth string quartet: youtu.be/Dvk6pWg_VAc
According to Mitchell, McEwen's viola concerto, written in 1901 when the composer was 33 years old, was composed in response to a request from the young British viola virtuoso Lionel Tertis, whose commissions played a significant role in establishing the viola as a solo instrument. In a sense, it is a landmark work in British music history, predating better-known viola works commissioned by Tertis such as William Walton's concerto and Ralph Vaughan Williams' "Flos campi"; however, it faded into complete obscurity after its 1901 premiere until this recording by the renowned violist Lawrence Power in 2011.
Although not as adventurous as many of the works he would compose later in his career, the concerto is a significant, meticulously orchestrated work which undoubtedly deserves a place in the viola standard repertoire.
