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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Walton: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2
The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Martyn Brabbins gives invigorating and authoritative performances of William Walton’s masterful symphonies. The musicians balance stunning control with breathtaking energy and character. Following the resounding success of Belshazzar’s Feast, Walton spent three years perfecting his dramatic first symphony. The immensely virtuosic work displays an astounding range of colours and emotional volatility, reflecting the turbulence of Walton’s private life. Despite its fraught gestation—the first performance in 1934 by the London Symphony Orchestra was missing the finale—this work met with an ecstatic critical reception and has remained popular ever since. The second symphony, premiered by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in 1960, is more concise and refined. Somewhat out of kilter with the austerity of its time, this masterpiece was slow to emerge from the shadow of its predecessor. Also included is the intimate orchestral work Siesta, from 1926. “Nobody since has managed to match [Previn's] combination of snarling menace and orchestral brilliance on disc, and it's a real achievement that Martyn Brabbins and the BBC Scottish Symphony come as close as they do to emulating it. Brabbins's account is a reminder that for all its derivative elements and bombast, Walton One is a powerful musical statement in its own right.” The Guardian, 23rd June 2011 **** “the Second — unhappily premiered 25 years later, in 1960 — has not been much heard. One reason may be that its fizzing syncopations and phantasmagorical textures are fiendish to conduct and play. Martyn Brabbins and the BBC Scottish are thrilling champions.” The Times, 25th June 2011 **** “Neglected in the concert hall, Walton’s Second Symphony (1956-60) makes an ideal foil on CD for his more familiar First...Brabbins makes the strongest possible case for the work...Anyone tempted by both symphonies on a single disc need not hesitate.” Sunday Times, 10th July 2011 **** “The dazzling brilliance and menacing darkness in Walton’s First Symphony are astutely caught here by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Martyn Brabbins. The sensible coupling is the Second Symphony, not so warmly received when it was new but here attesting to its originality and emotional power.” The Telegraph, 7th July 2011 **** “Good performances do convince you that [The First] a masterpiece, and Martyn Brabbins’s account is very, very good. There’s plenty of savagery when needed, and the bombast is slightly underplayed but with no loss of energy or momentum...Brabbins’s performance [of the Second] really delivers, notably in the eerie slow interlude in the last movement, and the final brass-drenched minutes. It’s that good.” Graham Rickson, The Arts Desk, 16th July 2011 “unlike on many other recordings, both conductor and orchestra know one another's work and working methods well, and it shows here in many points of detail...As for the performances, it is impossible to imagine anything better than this, by turns so very exciting and very moving. Brabbins's tempos are absolutely spot-on...I have no doubt that this disc enshrines great conducting of a great orchestra in great music; the result is a record in a thousand.” International Record Review, July/August 2011 “Brabbins never lets [the First] off the tight rein it requires, so that it sounds all the more powerful as a result: the ferocious climaxes are built and sustained with control, while the Andante con malinconia convincingly resists its usual tendency to sprawl. The playing - featuring what must be the finest trumpet section in these islands - is top-flight” BBC Music Magazine, September 2011 ****/* “Brabbins brings a focused, tautly unified concept to each symphony, with great empathy shining out of the Lento of the Second” Classic FM Magazine, September 2011 **** “What is so good about the new Hyperion performances is the control of tension...The whole disc is a credit not only to the conductor but also to the quality of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra which can stand comparison with any rival, not least in the quality of the woodwind solos.” Gramophone Magazine, October 2011 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Walton: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2
Emotion runs high in Walton's music: the breakdown of a love affair gives restless energy to the First Symphony, new love inspires the Violin Concerto, and married happiness on a Mediterranean island shines through in the Cello Concerto and Second Symphony. | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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“Tomter displays impressive control in the virtuosic Scherzo, but he sounds oddly cautious at more than one point where recklessness and sheer dash would be welcome, and his shifts of tempo are not always totally convincing. Good value, though.” BBC Music Magazine, January 2008 “This disc opens with one of the wittiest, most exuberant performances of the JohannesburgFestival Overture: Daniel encourages the orchestra's virtuoso wind and brass soloists to point the jazz rhythms idiomatically, making the music sparkle. The Viola Concerto is just as delectably pointed, the whole performance magnetic.
Tomter's tone, with its rapid flicker-vibrato, lacks the warmth of Kennedy's (reviewed below), but the vibrato is only obtrusive in that upper-middle register and his intonation is immaculate, his attack consistently clean, to match the crisp ensemble of the orchestra.
Although he adopts relatively measured speeds both for the Scherzo and the jaunty opening theme of the finale, the rhythmic lift brings out the scherzando jollity of the latter all the more.
Daniel's keen observance of dynamic markings is again brought out in the stuttering fanfare theme of the Scherzo, with muted trumpets and trombones for once played pianissimo as marked.
The close of the slow epilogue has never been recorded with such a profound hush as here, subsiding in darkness, and the recording team is to be complimented on getting such beautiful sound, clean with plenty of bloom. Paul Daniel adopts a relatively broad tempo in the Symphony's first movement, and the flowing tempo for the central slow movement makes for a lighter, less passionate result too. The finale, with its brassy first statement of the Passacaglia theme, brings fine dynamic contrasts, but again Litton and others produce a fatter, weightier sound, which on balance is preferable. Yet Daniel's view is a very valid one, to round off most convincingly an invaluable addition to the Walton discography.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 “Having firmly established itself as the leading budget price label, Naxos is now stating a claim to be the major purveyor of British repertoire.” The Times | | | (also available to download from $6.00) | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Walton: Concertos and Symphonies
“Chung's intense Violin Concerto and Neubauer's firm Viola Concerto and Lloyd Webber's oddly matter-of-fact Cello Concerto are coupled with Litton's sometimes too easy-going Symphonies.” BBC Music Magazine, May 2013 **** | | | (Sorry, download not available in your country) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Walton: The Symphonies
Rarely appearing together on disc, William Walton’s two symphonies are separated by some 25 years. The First Symphony was composed after his dazzling early success, beginning with Façade and culminating in two scores written before Walton reached the age of thirty: the Viola Concerto and the oratorio Belshazzar’s Feast. After this, composition became more difficult, and progress on the symphony was tortuous and protracted. Nevertheless, the work has a strikingly positive tone – perhaps in celebration of the victory over the many demons and difficulties that had attended its creation. 22 years later, in 1957, the musical world was a very different place, but Walton’s response was not to seek solace in reflective nostalgia. It is rather as if he conceived the Second Symphony as a follow-up to his terse and bubbly Partita for orchestra, building on the confidence that the success of that score had given the always self-doubting composer. Owain Arwel Hughes, who conducts the present recording, first made his name with an electrifying televised performance of Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast which received a notable accolade from the composer. On this recording he brings Walton across the English Channel and conducts one of the leading French orchestras, Orchestre national de Lille, for their first appearance on the BIS label. “The French players seem perfectly drilled in the intricate rhythmic complexities of Walton's often jagged writing in these highly enjoyable performances, which also bring out the lyrical warmth of Walton's endlessly memorable melodies” Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2010 “One readily sees Walton’s music as a native, untransplantable growth, but here is a French orchestra relishing his symphonies... Hughes is an old hand with British music, and secures persuasive accounts of both” Sunday Times, 8th August 2010 *** | | | (also available to download from $10.50) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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“Bryden Thomson shows his feel for Walton's colours: atmospheric outer movements frame a sensuous central movement.” BBC Music Magazine, Proms 2008 | | | (also available to download from $10.50) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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| |  | Walton: Symphonies & Concertos
A box set which traces Walton’s career from its early days (his first orchestral work Portsmouth Point) through to the composer’s late sixties, this 5-CD compilation presents a fascinating selection of some of his largest-scale works. Ranging from the intense private display of the Viola Concerto—an instant success which quickly became revered the world over—to the ceremonial pomp of Crown Imperial, all facets of Walton’s compositional character are explored, fully justifying his status as the leading composer of his generation. | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Sir William Walton: The Collector's Edition
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