1-5.5.2023 William Walton / 6.2.2012 William Walton (1902-1983) [Repeat]

[french frank]

This is a repeat from 2 years ago, probably in connection with S Heffer's programmes on British music.

1/5. Bright Young Thing: Donald Macleod on how Walton became known as the 1920s' most precocious British composer.
2/5. Happy Prince: How Walton became known as the 1920s' most precocious British composer.
3/5. Wartime Favourite: How Walton's career took a new turn in the wartime era.
4/5. Ischian Labourer: Walton's most difficult years as a composer.
5/5. National Treasure: Walton's legacy and music from his final years.

[Boilk]

This 3.2.2012 BBC Four programme about Walton and with a performance of Belshazzar was a repeat too, and was followed by recent Proms performances.

Nice to see WW in archive interview clips. He really had Humphrey Burton flummoxed with his concise "yes" and "no" responses!

[JimD]

I had to listen again. Walton judged by 'many' to be 'the pre-eminent Brtish composer of his time' in the 60s? I thought that Benjamin Britten was still alive!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I had to listen again. Walton judged by 'many' to be 'the pre-eminent Brtish composer of his time' in the 60s? I thought that Benjamin Britten was still alive!

As was Tippett!

I suppose it depends how "many" is "many"!

[VodkaDilc]

I had to listen again. Walton judged by 'many' to be 'the pre-eminent British composer of his time' in the 60s? I thought that Benjamin Britten was still alive!

I'm trying to think myself back to the 60s and I think that there might be some truth in this.Walton was seen as a major and senior figure, who wrote serious stuff like symphonies and concertos, as well as music for the royal occasions which were, perhaps, more central to the musical world than they are now. Britten was, perhaps, seen as a younger figure, who had written some good operas, but was a bit of an outsider (hey! there's a good idea for an opera or two!). Am I alone in thinking this?

[Panjandrum]

I'm trying to think myself back to the 60s and I think that there might be some truth in this.Walton was seen as a major and senior figure, who wrote serious stuff like symphonies and concertos, as well as music for the royal occasions which were, perhaps, more central to the musical world than they are now. Britten was, perhaps, seen as a younger figure, who had written some good operas, but was a bit of an outsider (hey! there's a good idea for an opera or two!). Am I alone in thinking this?

I think what DM should have said was "one of the eminent British composers of the era". Instead, in current media jargon, everything has to be "arguably the best" . In this instance, a sensible, but unsensational opinion would be that Britten and Walton were of equivalent stature at that time, although, IMV, Britten had arguably surpassed Walton in international reputation.

[DracoM]

Is it just my imagination, or are we getting more repeats of CoTW lately?

[Panjandrum]

Is it just my imagination, or are we getting more repeats of CoTW lately?

It's not and we are. There is an unofficial season of British composers on BBC coinciding with Simon Heffer's Saturday Classics and the BBC4 series of films. The budget does not extend to commissioning new programmes, hence they are all repeats.

[decantor]

I'm trying to think myself back to the 60s and I think that there might be some truth in this.Walton was seen as a major and senior figure, who wrote serious stuff like symphonies and concertos, as well as music for the royal occasions which were, perhaps, more central to the musical world than they are now. Britten was, perhaps, seen as a younger figure, who had written some good operas, but was a bit of an outsider (hey! there's a good idea for an opera or two!). Am I alone in thinking this?

Vodka, I do agree with your summary of 1960s' perceptions. Although I'd arranged Crown Imperial for piano at the age of 12 (a chance for some impressively wild thumping with minimum technique required!), and loved Belshazzar etc, I was far more a fan of Britten and Tippett, who both seemed more innovative and prolific. Yet Walton hovered like a great distant spirit over the music scene, and was somehow acknowledged as the presiding angel even though that seems slightly odd now. Perhaps age and distance lent authority.

[ahinton]

These days - and for some time now - Walton has been overlooked and invited aspersions of all kinds in spite of what he achieved. I understand his ultimate feeling of disappointment in his own achievement but that doesn't mean that I endorse it unquestioningly. The very young Britten was a great admirer of the young Walton, yet the easily unseated Walton later developed an unhealthy jealousy of Britten and his supreme ease to do what he wanted to do. Britten developed a technique that enabled him to do just whatever he wanted to do; unlike Britten, Walton struggled hard to achieve the ends that he sought, for most of his career. Comparisons are especially odious here; it would be so much better if the best of Walton's music were accepted on its own terms rather than so often being forced into the straitjacket of perceived and externally imposed necessity to compare it with that of Britten, Tippett et al; I never listen to Sinfonia da Requiem for the purposes of comparing it to Tippett's Second Symphony (a finer work, in my view, but so what?) nor to New Year with a view to comparing it to Billy Budd (ditto). Walton's confidence crises were something rareloy if ever experienced by Britten but perhaps almost alarmingly close to those suffered earlier by Elgar. Ultimately, the finest of Walton's works - the two symphonies, the concertos, Belshazzar et al - stand the test of time and are perhaps a mite closer to the mature Bridge and Rawsthorne than anything composed by Britten or Tippett. Walton was never especially good at accepting success or failure on others' terms; he had his own demons with which to deal where each was concerned.

[Panjandrum]

i think it was telling that when Walton dedicated his "Improvisations on a theme of Britten" the younger composer replied that Portsmouth Point and the viola concerto had been major influences on him; i.e. both works composed in the 1920s, implying that nothing since had been of comparable quality.

[Serial_Apologist]

Crown imperialist?

A return of Life with the Walton to COTW for the first time since 2012? Anyway, Donald is trailing the composer by way of a strangely sluggish recording of his Crown Imperial - not the one I happen to know - written in the requisite neo-Elgarian P&S manner for the late Queen's own coronation. It was a piece that sought to encapsulate a new optimistic spirit abroad in just post-rationed, post-WW2 Britain: one combining, erm, jazzy rhythms, boldness, solemnity and tradition, by a composer at one time considered in establishment quarters an enfant terrible.

The first programme recalls Walton as a gifted young 'un, just out of Oldham, already benighted but not yet formally:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001lbzl

[Tony Halstead]

A return of Life with the Walton to COTW for the first time since 2012? Anyway, Donald is trailing the composer by way of a strangely sluggish recording of his Crown Imperial - not the one I happen to know - written in the requisite neo-Elgarian P&S manner for the late Queen's own coronation. It was a piece that sought to encapsulate a new optimistic spirit abroad in just post-rationed, post-WW2 Britain: one combining, erm, jazzy rhythms, boldness, solemnity and tradition, by a composer at one time considered in establishment quarters an enfant terrible.

The first programme recalls Walton as a gifted young 'un, just out of Oldham, already benighted but not yet formally:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0001lbzl

I thought that 'Crown Imperial' was written for King George V1's coronation not Queen Elizabeth ll's... I'm pretty sure that 'Orb and Sceptre' was the one for the 1953 coronation. Apologies if I've got that wrong.

[Serial_Apologist]

I thought that 'Crown Imperial' was written for King George V1's coronation not Queen Elizabeth ll's... I'm pretty sure that 'Orb and Sceptre' was the one for the 1953 coronation. Apologies if I've got that wrong.

You are right, I was wrong; so thanks for that correction, Tony.

[Pulcinella]

You are right, I was wrong; so thanks for that correction, Tony.

I rather liked your P&S! Took a while to realise what the comparison was!