by WILLIAM PRIMROSE Of the thirty-one concertos for various instruments written by Haydn, five were for the lira da braccio, described as a tenor violin, but actually a kind of viola. It had seven strings against the viola's four, but two of them were duplications in the octave, while another was the E string of the violin. Such music can, therefore. with careful transcription, be faithfully rendered by a skilled modern viola player.
The Largo of Nardini was written for the violin. as were the majority of the compositions of this celebrated eighteenth-century violinist. In the repertory of a virtuoso viola player, however, much violin music is of necessity included.
Paganini's La Campanella, in its original form, is one of the movements of his second concerto for the violin, here transcribed for the viola by this evening's soloist, William Primrose. It is one of the most famous of Paganini's compositions, and is perhaps best known by Liszt's striking transcription of it for the pianoforte.