Lionel Tertis

Lionel Tertis (29 December 1876 – 22 February 1975) was an English violist and one of the first viola players to find international fame.

Lionel Tertis: "My Viola and I"

 * We had no sooner taken our seats in the railway carriage and the train was beginning to move slowly out of the station when the guard came along the corridor and presented me with my viola! The porter had spotted it, reclining in its case all alone on the platform seat where Lillian and I had been busily engaged in conversation, run along the platform, and thrust it into the hands of the guard through the luggage van window as the train was moving off. Such was my absorption in Lillian that I could even forget the existence of my beloved and precious viola which had meant so much to me for so many years.

About Tertis

 * from a tremendously vital white-hot fortissimo down to a trembling, limpid pianissimo so distant that it was difficult to sense whence the mysterious sound could be coming
 * Eric Coates on Tertis' playing Royal Academy of Music