Comparisons between No's 1 & 2 aside;I love the orchestration of the Second symphony. I was looking at this on the Wikipedia entry for this symphony. The large orchestra includes military drum, snare drum, crash cymbals, suspended cymbal, bass drum, glockenspiel, vibraphone, xylophone, tambourine, bell, piano, celesta, 2 harps and strings,among all the more usual instruments. I'm no expert on orchestration,but the orchestration has a fantastic,wide-screen sound world to my ears,all of it's own. There is really something quite seductive about it! I think the final movement is probably,the weak point of the symphony,for me;but maybe I was distracted,I had allot of boring things to do yesterday! Funnily enough,looking for a follow up,because Walton didn't compose many symphonies,and I'd just listened through a slew of VW's symphonies;my follow up to Walton's Second was Bax's First!!
Incidentally,I suppose it's just me;but the 'exotic' 'sound world' of parts of Walton's Second symphony made me think of Korngold's Symphony,at times. No I'm not saying Walton sounds like Korngold!!........but that lush,wide-screen quality,some of the more 'exotic' instrumentation (not Villa-Lobos exotic,I should point out) and some of the exciting outbursts from the orchestra,particularly in the First movement. If I'd thought of that,I might have put on the Korngold next,instead of the Bax. (Not that I mind. After listening through Bax No's 1-4,I'm now listening to the Fifth. Bryden Thomson conducting the lot!).