'It is therefore quite wrong to place just mechanical or mediocre players at the viola', warned Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart in 1784/85 in his 'Ideen zu einer Ästhetik der Tonkunst'. Some disregard for the instrument still exists today, if you think of the large number of viola jokes. But seriously, the viola has of course become emancipated and has of course got its place in the orchestra, as a solo instrument or in chamber music, even if, admittedly, the repertoire is smaller than that ...