Sir William Walton

[Mirror Image]

For those who buy/bought the Andre Previn Very Big Box on Warner, it includes an outstanding album of Walton's Second + Portsmouth Point, but also an eclectic "Music Night" recital of music that he and the LSO played on a BBC program once. The first big number is Walton's "Orb and Sceptre", but before that, they play a theme tune composed by Previn for the BBC show. It's rather funny because the Previn tune is clearly a Walton pastiche. You transition straight from the very faithful fake Walton to the real stuff.

As an aside, I looked up Orb and Sceptre and it got me thinking. That piece was written for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Walton also wrote a coronation march for her father, George VI. Before that, the most recent coronation marches were by Elgar and Saint-Saëns, plus additional pieces by Parry and Stanford.

So the question is - now that it's been nearly seventy years since the last coronation march had to be written - who would do it now? Who would Prince Charles choose? The current Master of the Queen's Music is Judith Weir, but Walton, Elgar, and Saint-Saëns didn't hold the job when they composed their works, as the Master can call upon celebrity helpers to pitch in for really big occasions. In fact, Weir's job currently is more of an advocacy gig, and she's not the first to treat the job that way; when Elgar became Master in the mid-20s, he mostly served as a dispenser of advice and lobbyist for causes like getting Granville Bantock knighted and removing the K from "musick" ( ). Also: Weir is on a ten-year term which ends in 2024.

So the field will be wide open. Assuming QEII is mortal, perhaps a risky assumption. 

Those Previn performances of Symphony No. 2 and Portsmouth Point Overture are the Collector's Edition on Warner and they are fantastic performances. As for who would be Master of the Queen's music after Weir, there are several composers who I think would do well in the position: Thomas Adès, Roxanna Panufnik, Mark-Anthony Turnage or Jonathan Dove.

[Symphonic Addict]

Absolutely listen to the Sonata again as soon as you can!  And just for fun try and hear Christopher Palmer's remarkably idiomatic and effective orchestration of it as a kind of Violin Concerto Mk.2.  I had not bothered with listening to it for years but did recently and was thrilled by it all over again (Palmer was simply brilliant)

Interesting to know, I'll keep your comments in mind. Thank you.

[kyjo]

The Violin Sonata in its original form is a very fine work. I'll be interested to hear that orchestration of it!

[Roasted Swan]

Partly prompted by this recent discussion I picked up a copy of the 4 disc "Walton Conducts Walton" edition from EMI;



In fact I only was missing one of the discs from their separate issues but its a good one - and one of my very first Walton LP's from my teens!



I loved that record.  The Johannesberg Festival Overture is such fun and a wonderfully bustling Portsmouth Point.  Also in this CD set is the contents of another much-played LP;



I'm sure other forum members are familiar with the scenario of knowing an LP so well down to the slightest crack or pop your copy might have.  I find I listen to the CD still expecting the crackle for the LP!  Part of the pleasure of this 4 CD set is the quality of the liner notes - a full 27 pages of essays and detailed notes as well as old photographs.  Anyway this is a good excuse to listen again to some very old musical friends......

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

I will look for the 4 disc set, it looks great. While there are many discs called Walton Conducts Walton, I have one from Heritage (EMI recordings?) and another from Lyrita. As for the Heritage set, Partita, Orb and Sceptre, Portsmouth, and Johannesburg, are played with exuberance. Especially, Partita fires. For the Lyrita set, Capriccio B. and Sinfonia Concertante sound great. Peter Katin in the Concertante sounds classy and elegant. Plus, Music for Children is a nice surprise and great music.  In these recordings, the performances of orchestras are excellent. Sir Walton is a very good conductor.

Informative liner-notes are always very helpful. Also, I have Michael Kennedy's book on Walton, but haven't started reading it yet. Probably I will open the book next month.  I listened to Sonata for Violin and Orchestra via streaming right after ordering the cd. That's a great composition and very Waltonesque.

P.s. Is the name of the box "Walton Edition"?

[Roasted Swan]

I will look for the 4 disc set, it looks great. While there are many discs called Walton Conducts Walton, I have one from Heritage (EMI recordings?) and another from Lyrita. As for the Heritage set, Partita, Orb and Sceptre, Portsmouth, and Johannesburg, are played with exuberance. Especially, Partita fires. For the Lyrita set, Capriccio B. and Sinfonia Concertante sound great. Peter Katin in the Concertante sounds classy and elegant. Plus, Music for Children is a nice surprise and great music.  In these recordings, the performances of orchestras are excellent. Sir Walton is a very good conductor.

Informative liner-notes are always very helpful. Also, I have Michael Kennedy's book on Walton, but haven't started reading it yet. Probably I will open the book next month.  I listened to Sonata for Violin and Orchestra via streaming right after ordering the cd. That's a great composition and very Waltonesque.

P.s. Is the name of the box "Walton Edition"?

The Lyrita disc is quite different but definitely worth getting/hearing.  All the performances there are in typical Lyrita top notch sound and are excellent.  The Heritage disc are the same performances as the EMI/Walton Edition although I couldn't comment of whether one transfer is better than the other.  I've attached an image of the box I've just acquired.  Glad you enjoyed the Walton/Palmer Violin Sonata orchestration.

Kennedy's book on Walton is a good read.  I'm not sure anyone has dug really deep into Walton's whole back-story/early years.  He was such a ferocious/precicous talent - the whole "taken under the wings of the Sitwells" seems a tad too simple as are his early years in general.  Perhaps the documentation doesn't exist!

[vandermolen]

Partly prompted by this recent discussion I picked up a copy of the 4 disc "Walton Conducts Walton" edition from EMI;



In fact I only was missing one of the discs from their separate issues but its a good one - and one of my very first Walton LP's from my teens!



I loved that record.  The Johannesberg Festival Overture is such fun and a wonderfully bustling Portsmouth Point.  Also in this CD set is the contents of another much-played LP;



I'm sure other forum members are familiar with the scenario of knowing an LP so well down to the slightest crack or pop your copy might have.  I find I listen to the CD still expecting the crackle for the LP!  Part of the pleasure of this 4 CD set is the quality of the liner notes - a full 27 pages of essays and detailed notes as well as old photographs.  Anyway this is a good excuse to listen again to some very old musical friends......

I bought the excellent 'Walton Edition' set when it first came out. I also had that fine HMV Concert Classics LP of the film music which was in the same series as Sargent's excellent (IMO) recording of the First Symphony. The box set included the Olivier extracts from Henry V which did not feature on the LP and was another reason for obtaining the boxed set. I found it odd that Olivier's Hamlet extracts, accompanied by Walton's music never AFAIK made it to CD, although the LP was an RCA release I seem to recall. I like Walton's own recording of the 1st Symphony as well.

[Irons]

It does seem far-fetched that Walton would make a recording for the subscription label The World Record Club but EMI did licence recordings from them and eventually buy the catalogue. Usually when recordings sourced from other labels WRC would credit it on the label, with the Walton Film Score LP there is no such information. Something I have often wondered about.

[vandermolen]

It does seem far-fetched that Walton would make a recording for the subscription label The World Record Club but EMI did licence recordings from them and eventually buy the catalogue. Usually when recordings sourced from other labels WRC would credit it on the label, with the Walton Film Score LP there is no such information. Something I have often wondered about.

I think that I took this LP out of the record library in my youth. Unlike the 'Concerts Classics' release it does not feature the Spitfire, Prelude and Fugue.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Prompted by the wonderful discussion here, I just ordered 2 oop disc/set. They are The Walton Edition 4 disc set and Walton SY1/Wagner by Jascha Horenstein. I am so excited to receive them and play them with my vacuum tube (valve) amps. I don't know you gents' opinion of the Horenstein recording, but I found an Amazon (USA) customer's review below interesting. He even briefly mentions a recording of William Boughton.
Irons, the record of film scores looks hip and cool. I assume the 4 disc set I bought has all these recordings. Can't wait checking them out.

- - - - -
As proven time again throughout his career, give Jascha Horenstein a score, and invariably he would see it differently, and at the same time, penetrate to the heart of it, sometimes in startling fashion. This live recording from 1970 is an example.

Do not come to this recording expecting the kind of quicksilver kinetics of the famous Andre Previn version, or anything like it. This is a slower, darker, different experience that is awesome in its own way. Almost the opposite of Previn.

Although the score for the first movement calls for "allegro assai", and most versions go fast, Horenstein takes it at something closer to moderato. (The first movement goes around 16 minutes, a full minute slower than even William Boughton's recent "slow" version.) Again, do not expect the music to take off and fly, like most standard interpretations. Instead, Horenstein walks Walton's darkest demons before you, in all of their rage, fury and angst. It is harrowing, disturbing, cataclysmic. Horenstein continues this in the second movement, delivering the "malice" that Walton calls for---the exact feeling that is missing in most other versions (some of which are no more than quirky). And where other intepreters offer the third movement andante in a mood of reflection, Horenstein evokes genuine loss, anguish, and heartbreak. Finally, the fourth movement---bombastic, borderline hokey, and excuse for orchestral splash under most batons---is thunderous and majestic, but serious; the emergence from struggle. You will feel the weight from this journey, but it will be worth it.

Even if you already own and have heard other Walton Firsts, and there are many good ones, this one is special. It not only stands up to any other version for power, but stands alone for the depth of interpretation.

[Roasted Swan]

Prompted by the wonderful discussion here, I just ordered 2 oop disc/set. They are The Walton Edition 4 disc set and Walton SY1/Wagner by Jascha Horenstein. I am so excited to receive them and play them with my vacuum tube (valve) amps. I don't know you gents' opinion of the Horenstein recording, but I found an Amazon (USA) customer's review below interesting. He even briefly mentions a recording of William Boughton.
Irons, the record of film scores looks hip and cool. I assume the 4 disc set I bought has all these recordings. Can't wait checking them out.

- - - - -
As proven time again throughout his career, give Jascha Horenstein a score, and invariably he would see it differently, and at the same time, penetrate to the heart of it, sometimes in startling fashion. This live recording from 1970 is an example.

Do not come to this recording expecting the kind of quicksilver kinetics of the famous Andre Previn version, or anything like it. This is a slower, darker, different experience that is awesome in its own way. Almost the opposite of Previn.

Although the score for the first movement calls for "allegro assai", and most versions go fast, Horenstein takes it at something closer to moderato. (The first movement goes around 16 minutes, a full minute slower than even William Boughton's recent "slow" version.) Again, do not expect the music to take off and fly, like most standard interpretations. Instead, Horenstein walks Walton's darkest demons before you, in all of their rage, fury and angst. It is harrowing, disturbing, cataclysmic. Horenstein continues this in the second movement, delivering the "malice" that Walton calls for---the exact feeling that is missing in most other versions (some of which are no more than quirky). And where other intepreters offer the third movement andante in a mood of reflection, Horenstein evokes genuine loss, anguish, and heartbreak. Finally, the fourth movement---bombastic, borderline hokey, and excuse for orchestral splash under most batons---is thunderous and majestic, but serious; the emergence from struggle. You will feel the weight from this journey, but it will be worth it.

Even if you already own and have heard other Walton Firsts, and there are many good ones, this one is special. It not only stands up to any other version for power, but stands alone for the depth of interpretation.

Never seen or heard of that Horenstein/Walton 1 - the review sounds fascinating - please do make sure to post your thoughts!  I've quite a few of those Intaglio discs and the sound ranges from really quite good to truly awful - depending on the quality of the original radio broadcast I guess.  Fingers crossed this is nearer the good end of the scale

[vandermolen]

Never seen or heard of that Horenstein/Walton 1 - the review sounds fascinating - please do make sure to post your thoughts!  I've quite a few of those Intaglio discs and the sound ranges from really quite good to truly awful - depending on the quality of the original radio broadcast I guess.  Fingers crossed this is nearer the good end of the scale

I also like the Horenstein recording but it's ages since I heard it. The Karajan (seriously!) is also worth looking out for.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

I also like the Horenstein recording but ages it's ages since I heard it. The Karajan (seriously!) is also worth looking out for.

Good to hear that you like the Horenstein. I never knew that Karajan conducted SY01!  I guess Horenstein 01 is the slowest interpretation and perhaps the Harty the fastest?
Jfyi, a short review of the Horenstein from another Amazon customer:

Horenstein takes a considerably slower tempo than anyone else, making this perhaps the most dramatic interpretation of this work ever recorded. Not sure why most other conductors are in such a rush in the first movement; that just destroys the tension as you will learn (by way of contrast) here. Not bad sound either for a live concert of the time. Faust Overture pretty good too.

[André]

AFAIK Karajan didn't record Walton's 1st commercially, but a concert performance with an italian orchestra is included in the Great Conductors series:

[André]

I have the 1st symphony under Boult (Somm), Haitink (EMI), Davis (LSO), and Daniel (Naxos).

What other version(s) should I look for as an alternative pov ?

[Symphonic Addict]

I have the 1st symphony under Boult (Somm), Haitink (EMI), Davis (LSO), and Daniel (Naxos).

What other version(s) should I look for as an alternative pov ?

Previn (RCA), Thomson (Chandos) and I think Litton (Decca) has the right measure of this piece too.

[Mirror Image]

Previn (RCA), Thomson (Chandos) and I think Litton (Decca) has the right measure of this piece too.

+1 For Previn (RCA) and Thomson (Chandos). I'm less keen on the Litton.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

I have the 1st symphony under Boult (Somm), Haitink (EMI), Davis (LSO), and Daniel (Naxos).

What other version(s) should I look for as an alternative pov ?

For standard interpretations, I like Boult and Haitink. As for unique interpretations, Adrian Leaper, Horenstein (checked on YT and waiting for the cd now), and Harty (fast, historical recording) are enjoyable to me.

[Brian]

Karabits on Onyx has a lot of the muscle, flash, and brashness of Previn/LSO in both symphonies, in state of the art sound. Previn's still my guy, but Karabits is really impressive and both symphonies are on one disc. Of your recordings, André, I confess to only knowing Paul Daniel.

[Daverz]

I have the 1st symphony under Boult (Somm), Haitink (EMI), Davis (LSO), and Daniel (Naxos).

What other version(s) should I look for as an alternative pov ?

I also like Karabits, if, after getting Previn/RCA, you still want another recording.