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This 2CD set reveals two sides of Walton, the composer of music for the voice. CD1 features the extravagant side of the composer with multiple choirs and a huge orchestra for swaggering performances of the Coronation Te Deum and Belshazzar’s Feast, both with Sir Georg Solti conducting. CD2, with all items released on CD for the first time, features the more intimate side of the composer, with settings of choral miniatures, from the earliest setting (Drop, drop, slow tears of 1917) up to the 1972 Jubilate. Simon Preston’s LP was released on Argo to mark Walton’s 70th birthday. The remainder of the items come from a L’Oiseau-Lyre LP coupling songs by Walton and Machonchy and performed by Heather Harper. A Song for the Lord Mayor’s Table was commissioned by the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths for the first City of London Festival; the texts were chosen by the English dramatist and poet Christopher Hassall and the poems come mostly from 18th-century verse related to London. The collection is rounded off with Walton’s Three Songs to poems by Dame Edith Sitwell date from 1932, all based on the composer’s Façade.
Sir William Walton: Belshazzar's Feast
1. Thus spake Isaiah
2. If I forget thee
3. Babylon was a great city
4. In Babylon Belshazzar the King
5. Praise ye, the God of gold
6. Thus in Babylon the mighty city
7. And in that same hour
8. Then sing aloud to God our strength
9. The trumpeters and pipers
10. Then sing aloud to God our strength
Sir William Walton: Coronation Te Deum
Coronation Te Deum
Sir William Walton: Missa Brevis (1966)
1. Kyrie
2. Sanctus & Benedictus
3. Agnus Dei
4. Gloria
Sir William Walton: The Twelve
1. Without Arms Or Charm Of Culture
2. O Lord, my God
3. Children Play About the Ancestral Graves
Sir William Walton: Jubilate Deo
Jubilate Deo
Sir William Walton: Set Me As A Seal Upon Thine Heart
Set Me As A Seal Upon Thine Heart
Sir William Walton: Where Does The Unuttered Music Go?
Where Does The Unuttered Music Go?
Sir William Walton: A Litany ("Drop, Drop Slow Tears")
A Litany ("Drop, Drop Slow Tears")
Sir William Walton: All This Time (Carol, Early English)
All This Time (Carol, Early English)
Sir William Walton: Make We Joy In This Fest (Trad. Carol)
Make We Joy In This Fest (Trad. Carol)
Sir William Walton: What Cheer?
What Cheer?
Sir William Walton: A Song For The Lord Mayor's Table (cycle devised by C. Hassall)
1. The Lord Mayor's Table (T. Jordan)
2. Glide gently (William Wordsworth)
3. Wapping Old Stairs (Anon 1970)
4. Holy Thursday (William Blake)
5. The Contrast (C. Morris)
6. Rhyme (Anon 18th century)
Sir William Walton: Three Songs
1. Daphne
2. Through gilded trellises
3. Old Sir Faulk
Christmas 2012
****
“Solti's Belshazzar's Feast is more symphonic than dramatic but monumentally impressive. Preston directs a useful anthology of short choral works.”
(Belshazzar’s Feast, Coronation Te Deum)
“Decca have done it again, transferring this highly spectacular choral work [Belshazzar’s Feast] with incredible aplomb. The Coronation Te Deum is hardly less impressive, the choral sound richer textured to suit the occasion, and there is a great bass pedal effect near the end. … Solti has come to Belshazzar's Feast, a great British masterpiece, and in his refreshing way has given it a crisp, international look … It is certainly a most distinctive performance, sharply focused and helped by a recording of superb clarity and brilliance … Indeed the range and bite of the sound here is little short of miraculous”
(CD2: Choral works)
“The disc thus gives a panorama of the composer's choral development over five decades … Preston has welded the choir into a most expressive and flexible instrument … The disc does credit to all concerned and will add lustre to the already high standard of Argo recordings in this field.”
(Songs)
“Heather Harper’s singing … is a constant pleasure. Paul Hamburger, a first-rate accompanist who has appeared far too little on records, plays the quite demanding piano parts with great skill and sensitivity”
Click on any of the works listed above for alternative recordings.
1. Thus spake Isaiah
