In 1974 Tertis wrote in his memoirs that he had recommended Hindemith to Walton, but Walton had recalled in 1962 that the idea came from Edward Clark of the BBC music department. It is not clear where the suggestion came from that the German composer and violist Paul Hindemith should be invited to premiere the work. Walton was so disappointed by Tertis's refusal that he considered recasting the concerto for violin and orchestra. It took me time to realize what a tower of strength in the literature of the viola is this concerto. The innovations in his musical language which now seem so logical and so truly in the mainstream of music then struck me as far-fetched. … I had not learnt to appreciate Walton’s style. With shame and contrition I admit that when the composer offered me the first performance, I declined it. Tertis later realised his error and wrote in his autobiography: On his return to England in the spring of 1929, Walton sent the completed concerto to Tertis, who immediately rejected it because of its modernity. He said he considered the concerto potentially his finest work to date, although whether this assessment would hold true would depend on how the third movement turned out. He wrote in December 1928 that he was working hard on the piece, and in February 1929 that he had finished the second movement. He wrote the concerto while wintering in Amalfi, Italy, with his friends and patrons the Sitwells. After some preliminary discussion Walton agreed. Towards the end of 1928 the conductor Sir Thomas Beecham suggested that Walton should write a concerto for the violist Lionel Tertis, for whom composers including Vaughan Williams and Bax had written major works. His exuberant and harmonically edgy concert overture Portsmouth Point (1926) maintained his reputation as an enfant terrible. In 1929 William Walton was regarded as an avant-garde composer, best known for Façade (1923), which had been a succès de scandale at its premiere.
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