Sir William Walton

Started by tjguitar, April 16, 2007, 09:15:49 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Dry Brett Kavanaugh

#600
Lately, I have been listening to these Viola Concerto recordings by teachers and student. Though the Imai/Latham-Koenig album is largely forgotten or unknown, it's a fine album. The performance of London Phil is lively and colorful. I like it a lot. Nobuko Imai's performance is excellent too, but just sometimes the volume of her viola becomes too small. I guess the microphone was too distant and/or she moved away from the mic, and the mixer did not fix the volume of viola. Still, her performance and tone remain fairly gorgeous. The Variation Hindemith in the album is a little more relaxed than that of Szell. Latham-Koenig let the music breath and the LPO's performance presents a wider scope and vividness. While I like the sharpness/energy of Szell's Variation, the picturesque presentation by LK/LPO is very attractive.

I heard that David Aaron Carpenter studied with several fine violists, including Imai and Bashmet. The Concerto in his album is excellent with a fine performance by the LPO/Jurowski. Carpenter has an attractive deep, fat tone. In terms of performance of viola exclusively, this set could arguably be the best album I have listened. At least, his performance could rival Bashmet well. As for the orchestras, however, I slightly prefer the Previn/Bashmet set. Overall, all the three disks are excellent albums, I think.

vandermolen

#601
I can't stop playing this: (I refer to the lovely, inspiriting 'Jubilate Deo' by Walton and not the irritating commercial about the funeral industry at the start of the video  :()

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlYWaFQ0qFI&list=RDvlYWaFQ0qFI&index=1
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

Roasted Swan

I came across a website of a company who sell original press photographs.  These are not reprints or scans but the actual publicity/press photos printed back whenever.  I picked up some nice composer photos that I'm going to frame but this is my favourite... it was taken as a publicity shot for ITV's documentary "At the Haunted End of the Day".  What a great pensive moment.

Partly prompted by this I also listened this morning to Walton's A minor String Quartet.  If you respond to the angular angry energy of Symphony 1 you must hear this too.  What a piece.  I like the Maggini's performance on Naxos but today I listened to this one



Fabulous version - imperious virtuosity but with bite and passion in spades.......


vandermolen

Quote from: Roasted Swan on March 17, 2021, 01:22:31 AM
I came across a website of a company who sell original press photographs.  These are not reprints or scans but the actual publicity/press photos printed back whenever.  I picked up some nice composer photos that I'm going to frame but this is my favourite... it was taken as a publicity shot for ITV's documentary "At the Haunted End of the Day".  What a great pensive moment.

Partly prompted by this I also listened this morning to Walton's A minor String Quartet.  If you respond to the angular angry energy of Symphony 1 you must hear this too.  What a piece.  I like the Maggini's performance on Naxos but today I listened to this one



Fabulous version - imperious virtuosity but with bite and passion in spades.......
Yes, it's a great photo - almost as good as the one of Holst munching a sandwich! I don't know Walton's SQ, so must rectify that.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

kyjo

Quote from: vandermolen on March 10, 2021, 04:22:38 AM
I can't stop playing this: (I refer to the lovely, inspiriting 'Jubilate Deo' by Walton and not the irritating commercial about the funeral industry at the start of the video  :()

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlYWaFQ0qFI&list=RDvlYWaFQ0qFI&index=1

Thanks for sharing Jeffrey - very inspiriting indeed! I also discovered his Coronation Te Deum recently which is another truly joyous work.
"Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music" - Sergei Rachmaninoff

kyjo

Quote from: Roasted Swan on March 17, 2021, 01:22:31 AM
Partly prompted by this I also listened this morning to Walton's A minor String Quartet.  If you respond to the angular angry energy of Symphony 1 you must hear this too.  What a piece.  I like the Maggini's performance on Naxos but today I listened to this one



Fabulous version - imperious virtuosity but with bite and passion in spades.......

Oh yes - a great work. Walton's ingenious rhythmic writing really comes across clearly and effectively in the string quartet medium. Like Elgar and RVW, he wrote a small body of chamber music that is of uniformly high quality and deserves greater recognition.
"Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music" - Sergei Rachmaninoff

vandermolen

Quote from: kyjo on March 18, 2021, 07:23:50 AM
Thanks for sharing Jeffrey - very inspiriting indeed! I also discovered his Coronation Te Deum recently which is another truly joyous work.
My pleasure Kyle and I'm glad that you enjoyed it. The Coronation Te Deum is my other favourite.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

relm1

#607
This was such a fantastic listen!  Exceptional music, performance, and recording.  Such exciting and vivid music, now I must check out the full opera!  Stylistically, it's somewhere between Respighi's Roman Trilogy and Ralph Vaughan Williams film scores.  Wow, I loved this.



https://www.wfmt.com/2021/03/17/the-british-project-waltons-troilus-cressida/

Roasted Swan

Quote from: relm1 on March 19, 2021, 04:12:01 PM
This was such a fantastic listen!  Exceptional music, performance, and recording.  Such exciting and vivid music, now I must check out the full opera!  Stylistically, it's somewhere between Respighi's Roman Trilogy and Ralph Vaughan Williams film scores.  Wow, I loved this.



https://www.wfmt.com/2021/03/17/the-british-project-waltons-troilus-cressida/

Gosh - this is a bit of a surprise recording.  I love Troilus & Cressida but thought it was one of those works unlikely to get many/any new leases of life.   This is the same suite compiled/arranged by the very great Christopher Palmer and recorded on Chandos as the coupling for Bryden Thomson's (fine) Symphony No.2.  It slightly annoys me that DG are charging pretty much full price for a 31 minute download (only) disc.  No matter what its artistic or technical qualities that will rule it out for me.  Perhaps it will end up coupled on a full length CD and then I'll have a look.

Definitely worth seeking out the full opera.  It is a 'traditional' grand scale Romantic work that runs against the time it was written in that opulent love-conquers-all (but doesn't so you die) style that was so contrary to the Post-War artistic world.  I find Gražinytė-Tyla's referencing Strauss and Korngold in her notes as rather perplexing - too simple and frankly shallow an understanding of Walton and his idiom.  As though he writes for a big orchestra with certain sweeping phrases makes it Straussian.... 

My other sorrow re the full opera is that it has never been completely recorded in the original Walton version.  The Baker revival is the revised score (as well as the change to the title role) and the Chandos recording with a soprano is a hybrid of the two scores.  There is an off-air of the original but sonically and musically this is too compromised to be other than an interesting reference recordings for Troilus fans.

On a tangent - if you do not know it - seek out Christopher Palmer's other Walton scores from his Henry V sequence through to the wonderful orchestration of the Violin Sonata as a kind of Violin Concerto No.2.  Palmer was a great talent who died far too soon

vandermolen

Quote from: relm1 on March 19, 2021, 04:12:01 PM
This was such a fantastic listen!  Exceptional music, performance, and recording.  Such exciting and vivid music, now I must check out the full opera!  Stylistically, it's somewhere between Respighi's Roman Trilogy and Ralph Vaughan Williams film scores.  Wow, I loved this.



https://www.wfmt.com/2021/03/17/the-british-project-waltons-troilus-cressida/
V interesting but I will not be buying a full-price download of short duration.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

Biffo

Quote from: vandermolen on March 20, 2021, 01:28:07 AM
V interesting but I will not be buying a full-price download of short duration.

It is available on Spotify if you have it.

Roasted Swan

Quote from: vandermolen on March 10, 2021, 04:22:38 AM
I can't stop playing this: (I refer to the lovely, inspiriting 'Jubilate Deo' by Walton and not the irritating commercial about the funeral industry at the start of the video  :()

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlYWaFQ0qFI&list=RDvlYWaFQ0qFI&index=1

Jeffrey - do you know this disc;

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Walton-Vaughan-Williams-Clap-Hands/dp/B001RHGZCM/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=David+Hill+O+clap+your+hands&qid=1616429187&sr=8-1



If not, you must get a copy asap!  RIGHT up your street...... wonderful vigorous perormances of Walton and RVW including a dancing "Jubilate Deo" (I prefer this version to the slightly 'pecky' singing on the YouTube link you posted), a THRILLING Psalm 100 - ripe and resonant with the Walton Te Deum, RVW Benedicite and Towards the Unknown Region thrown in plus other gems.  Recorded in Winchester Cathedral which really adds to the sense of musical spectacle


vandermolen

Quote from: Biffo on March 20, 2021, 02:42:23 AM
It is available on Spotify if you have it.
Many thanks Biffo.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

vandermolen

#613
Quote from: Roasted Swan on March 22, 2021, 08:11:03 AM
Jeffrey - do you know this disc;

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Walton-Vaughan-Williams-Clap-Hands/dp/B001RHGZCM/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=David+Hill+O+clap+your+hands&qid=1616429187&sr=8-1



If not, you must get a copy asap!  RIGHT up your street...... wonderful vigorous perormances of Walton and RVW including a dancing "Jubilate Deo" (I prefer this version to the slightly 'pecky' singing on the YouTube link you posted), a THRILLING Psalm 100 - ripe and resonant with the Walton Te Deum, RVW Benedicite and Towards the Unknown Region thrown in plus other gems.  Recorded in Winchester Cathedral which really adds to the sense of musical spectacle
Indeed I do RS! In fact that was the, recently acquired, CD which introduced me to that fine Walton work ('Jubilate Deo'). Why did I never have this CD before - it's terrific and I have been playing it right through from beginning to end with great pleasure? It most certainly is 'my cup of tea' and thanks very much for recommending it. Works like the 'Coronation Te Deum' and VW's moving 'Benedicite' (only the second recording I think) are the icing on the cake! I agree with you that the performance of 'Jubilate Deo' is preferable to the version that I posted from You Tube.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

Roasted Swan

Quote from: vandermolen on March 22, 2021, 10:25:40 AM
Indeed I do RS! In fact that was the, recently acquired, CD which introduced me to that fine Walton work ('Jubilate Deo'). Why did I never have this CD before - it's terrific and I have been playing it right through from beginning to end with great pleasure? It most certainly is 'my cup of tea' and thanks very much for recommending it. Works like the 'Coronation Te Deum' and VW's moving 'Benedicite' (only the second recording I think) are the icing on the cake! I agree with you that the performance of 'Jubilate Deo' is preferable to the version that I posted from You Tube.

A small example of RVW's utter genius - that trumpet descant in Psalm 100 - I'm certain that what they teach the angels at the "101 Last Trump Class".  And the atmosphere of the recording in the cathedral with those mighty organ pedals is perfect for this type of music....!

vandermolen

Quote from: Roasted Swan on March 22, 2021, 11:58:12 AM
A small example of RVW's utter genius - that trumpet descant in Psalm 100 - I'm certain that what they teach the angels at the "101 Last Trump Class".  And the atmosphere of the recording in the cathedral with those mighty organ pedals is perfect for this type of music....!
Totally agree - can't understand why this recording passed me by for so many decades!
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

Mirror Image

#616
Quote from: relm1 on March 19, 2021, 04:12:01 PM
This was such a fantastic listen!  Exceptional music, performance, and recording.  Such exciting and vivid music, now I must check out the full opera!  Stylistically, it's somewhere between Respighi's Roman Trilogy and Ralph Vaughan Williams film scores.  Wow, I loved this.



https://www.wfmt.com/2021/03/17/the-british-project-waltons-troilus-cressida/

Interesting. I'll have to check this out. I love so much of what Walton wrote, but I do find this DG release unusual or unusual for them as they haven't really paid much attention to Walton's music before.

Edit: Curiosity got the better of me, I bought the download of it via the Apple iTunes store for $5. I'll definitely report my impressions of it here whenever I get a chance to give it a listen.

Mirror Image

Quote from: vandermolen on March 22, 2021, 10:21:39 AM
Many thanks Biffo.

Jeffrey, it's also available for listening on YouTube. If you want to check it out.

Mirror Image

Cross-Posted from the 'Listening' thread -

Quote from: Mirror Image on March 22, 2021, 02:22:02 PM
NP: Walton Troilus & Cressida, Symphonic Suite (Gražinytė-Tyla)



I have to say that relm1's references are pretty spot-on. I also hear a bit of Revueltas, especially in The Trojans in the brass. But the wonderful thing here is Walton's compositional voice is never in question. This could've been composed by no one else.

vandermolen

Quote from: Mirror Image on March 22, 2021, 02:29:24 PM
Jeffrey, it's also available for listening on YouTube. If you want to check it out.
Thanks John!
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).