The unkind butt of many a musical joke, the viola sometimes gets a bad press. But we think it’s one of the loveliest instruments in the orchestra—in its upper range almost as brilliant as the violin, it’s lower range utterly distinct: veiled, melancholic and mysterious.
Its role in the centre of an ensemble means that it hasn’t attracted so much of the limelight as a solo instrument down the years, but there are, nevertheless, some really wonderful works written for it. Here are five of the best.
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