Towards a New Version of the Viola Concerto from Philological Perspectives

Abstract Bartók's “last work,” the Viola Concerto, can be considered a unique work in music history as an unfinished composition because of its status as one of the most popular concertos in this genre as well as its complex reception history. Remarkably, some musicologists and some violists, while both would have agreed that the historical version completed by Tibor Serly was problematic, had markedly different opinions as to what the problems were. While the latter criticized Serly's departure from the composer's autograph, the former considered that Serly stuck too much to the autograph. Individually they may have their own opinions that could be justified; however, in the case of the Viola Concerto as an unfinished work, a “literalistic” approach, to strive to be faithful to the written elements, must be regarded problematic for several reasons. First, it is not always possible to successfully decipher the composer's notation and intention; second, the fidelity to the written elements may ignore Bartók's stylistic features, which are so essential for the creation of an effective concert piece. The present article contains many case studies around these issues, including the so-called “Scherzo” or “transition” that has almost always been part of the realization of the Viola Concerto. Especially, the problem around the “Scherzo” demonstrates that a scholarly interpretation is not compatible with a musically desirable solution. It may sound ironical, but a strict philological approach, instead of offering a “correct” reading for future realizations, may rather pave the way for a more liberal and fruitful approach, by revealing the limit of the philological approach due to the unsolvable contradictions and inconsistencies inherent in the composer's autograph. The innate problems of the manuscript can only be solved by the creative inspiration of the creators of a new version, which may yet result in a Viola Concerto on a par with Bartók's other masterpieces.