The Disaster Scenario

It was a promising beginning. Jascha Heifetz asking William Walton to write a violin concerto for him. But before it would be performed the concerto would have to survive many perils, including a tarantula, bombs, and torpedoes.

The success of Walton’s Viola Concerto inspired Heifetz to commission a concerto for the violin. Delighted, Walton retreated to a seaside Italian villa to write the work. Almost immediately he received a more lucrative offer to write music to the film Pygmalion. Walton knew that writing for Heifetz was a gamble, but he turned down the film offer anyway, telling a friend, “It all boils down to whether I am to become a film composer or a real composer.”

Then Walton began to feel that the concerto was too soft-spoken and not sufficiently virtuosic Walton worried that if the concerto fell flat in America it would be a long time before he’d be able to have another work performed there.

Then a tarantula bit him. It was a painful experience, but in a wry way Walton celebrated the occasion by making the second movement of the concerto a Tarantella — a Neapolitan dance once believed to cure the spider’s bite. The concerto was turning into something decidedly unorthodox.

Early in 1939, Walton took a chance and sent the still-incomplete score to Heifetz for approval. A month later came the reply: “Accept enthusiastically.”

But the concerto was to have two more close calls. During a bomb scare, the manuscript of the concerto was lost. Heifetz’ copy of the score was later lost in the Atlantic, sunk during a convoy crossing. When the concerto finally was performed in Cleveland, Walton was unable to attend. He was too busy picking up the pieces. During an air raid a bomb had flattened his house.