The music of William Walton

[Barbirollians]

Just listening to a second-hand copy of Szell's walton recordings including the Second symphony - the Variations on a theme of Hindemith . It is an attractive work and it occurs to me that apart from the Violin Concerto and the odd performance of Belshzzar's feast and the First Symphony we do not hear much of his music just over 20 years after his death . Even his Cello Concerto was treated as an unknown when Laura van der Hagen played it in the Young Musician competition.

Frankly , reading his late wife's candid memoir he doesn't strike me as the most attractive of personalities . I do like his music though - it has a lot to say to me though I do find it very much of its period .

Any other Waltonians and favourite pieces or recordings . The Previn Walton 1, Ida Haendel's legendary concerto recording and this Szell record are my favourites

[Northender]

Viola Concerto c/w Rubbra Hyperion CDA67587 Lawrence Power/BBCSSO/Volkov
Piano and String Quartets Naxos 8.554646 Maggini Quartet/Donohoe
Violin and Cello Concertos Naxos 8.554325 Dong Suk Khan/Tim Hugh/ENPhil/Daniel
String Quartet in A Minor c/w Elgar/Bridge Hyperion CDA 66718 Coull Quartet (may have been reissued under new number)

[Roehre]

AFAIK Chandos still has got all their Walton recording in their catalogue, but unfortunately the multi-CD-set with all these Walton's works combined in one set has been deleted quite a long time ago already

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

AFAIK Chandos still has got all their Walton recording in their catalogue, but unfortunately the multi-CD-set with all these Walton's works combined in one set has been deleted quite a long time ago already

One of my great regrets was not to buy the Chandos set when it was available.

[hafod]

AFAIK Chandos still has got all their Walton recording in their catalogue, but unfortunately the multi-CD-set with all these Walton's works combined in one set has been deleted quite a long time ago already

No contents yet but herewith a new Walton Collector's Edition (whatever that means).

http://hmv.com/hmvweb/displayProductDetails.do?ctx=220;1;-1;-1;209&sku=834286

Just noticed that it is cheaper at Amazon.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sir-William-Walton-Collectors-Edition/dp/B0084HGZKK/ref=pd_bxgy_m_h__img_b

[EdgeleyRob]

Seems he has joined the massed ranks of neglected British composers.

My favourites -
1st Symphony LSO Previn.
Belshazzar Previn.
Symphonies 1 & 2 LSO/LPO Sir Charles MacKerras.

I am particularly fond of his chamber music-

[ahinton]

Just listening to a seocnd-hand copy of Szell's walton recordings including the Second symphony - the Variations on a theme of Hindemith . It is an attractive work and it occurs to me that apart from the Violin Concerto and the odd performance of Belshzzar's feast and the First Symphony we do not hear much of his music just over 20 years after his death . Even his Cello Concerto was treated as an unknown when Laura van der Hagen played it in the Young Musician competition.

Frankly , reading his late wife's candid memoir he doesn't strike me as the most attractive of personalities . I do like his music though - it has a lot to say to me though I do find it very much of its period .

Any other Waltonians and favourite pieces or recordings . The Previn Walton 1, Ida Haendel's legendary concerto recording and this Szell record are my favourites

Agreed, although I should perhaps mention that it's now almost 30 years since Walton died...

[Suffolkcoastal]

Walton is actually having a good year so far on R3 and has nearly reached the 2010 & 2011 totals already. However it still seems to be the 'popular' works that make up a large amount of the over 100 works/extracts broadcast so far. Certainly fine works like the Hindemith Variations, 2nd Symphony and The Bear, are largely absent. I've always been a big fan of Walton's music.

[Barbirollians]

So it is ! I somehow struggle with the 1980s being so long ago .

[Ferretfancy]

I've always been a Walton fan, and bought all the Chandos recordings as they appeared, including the Shakespeare scores with readings by Christopher Plummer. The Szell performance of the Hindemith Variations is rather special, and can I put in a word for the Improvisations on a theme of Benjamin Britten, superbly recorded by Previn and the LSO?

At the time of the first performance in 1960 of the Second Symphony, by John Pritchard in Liverpool, I was a very lowly technical operator at the BBC in London. At the time there was a drama studio called the Grafton, next door to Warren Street Station. For some reason I was sent to the recording channel there to nervously press the button on the BTR2 recorder to capture that live broadcast. No doubt it was repeated later, and I often wonder if that premiere recording still exists in the archive.

I knew the First Symphony pretty well, and of course its successor is rather different in character, but Walton through and through. Naturally I could not fully appreciate it back in 1960, but its a favourite now, and a happy memory.

[Curalach]

I've always been a Walton fan

Me too

[Bryn]

Me too

Likewise. I have always treated with some disdain those who turned their noses up at his compositions from the '50s onwards. His 1st Symphony was one of the few works that got me through detention as a schoolboy. We had to sit with backs straight and focus on a point on the wall ahead of us. Playing works such as Walton's First in my head made the experience entirely acceptable. It was almost worth misbehaving for. I did not know the Second at that time, and must admit that even today I don't think I could not 'play it in my head', much as I enjoy and admire it.

I got home today to find that my £2.99 bid for the Berberian/Tear/Bedford Facades 1 & 2 (OUP LP) had 'won' it for me on ebay. P&p is £4 but since it has never appeared on CD, and my old copy went in a fire, I am happy to pay that price. Tear is not ideal, but Berberian is magical.

[akiralx]

Symphony 1 - Rattle.
Violin Concerto - either Chung or Bell, but many fine recordings made of this work.
Henry V music + Crown Imperial - Litton (despite the resonant acoustic).

[salymap]

Although considered a failure at the time, I enjoyed attending the first or second performanc e of Troilus and Cressida at the ROH in 1954/5[?].
Otherwise Haendel in the violin concerto, lots of good performances of Symphony no 1, Jo'burg Festival overture, Portsmouth Point, film music, etc.
I can't stand Facade though

[Hornspieler]

A most interesting topic and very pleasing to learn that others admire and enjoy Walton's works.

If I were to be left with only one piece, it would have to the 1st symphony, because I feel sure that it is a true illustration of his inner self and he wrote it to express feelings and agonies which were in him and had to come out - the grandeur and swagger of the 1st movement,
the malevolance of the scherzo, the agony and despair of the slow movement and the optimism and forward looking of the finale.

I have always been in two minds about works with recitation, whether it be Britten's "Young Person's Guide", Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf",
"Baba the Elephant", "Carnival of the Animals" or "Delilah the Sensitive Cow" and for me, "Façade" comes into that category; so I do not regard that work as true Walton. Clever, yes, but no more than that

The violin and viola concertos far exceed the cello concerto (IMV) and possibly that is why it is heard so infrequently.

"Crown Imperial" overshadows "Orb and Sceptre" by a country mile and "Portsmouth Point" and "Scapino" overtures similarly outrank the "Johannesburg Festival Overture".

Walton's ability to write a good fugue is unquestioned and his Hindemith and Britten Variations certainly give Max Reger a lesson in composition and inventiveness.

All my own opinions, of course, but one thing that I must say is that Walton's music appeals as much to "the man in the street" as to the dedicated classical music lover; which one cannot realistically say regarding his contempories Britten and Tippet.

Hornspieler.