All recordingsPrices shown exclude VAT. (UK tax is not payable for deliveries to United States.)
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. |
|
|
| |  | 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. |
|
|
| |  | Walton: Belshazzar’s Feast & Symphony No. 1
DSD recording, live at the Barbican September 2008 (Belshazzar’s Feast) and September/December 2005 (Symphony No 1) Stereo and multi-channel (5.0). In 2006 LSO Live released Walton’s First Symphony conducted by Sir Colin Davis. The disc received widespread acclaim – it was an Editor’s Choice in Gramophone and voted CD of the Year by listeners of BBC Radio 3 CD Review. It is now being re-released, coupled with a new recording of Walton’s spectacular oratorio Belshazzar’s Feast. Walton’s Symphony No 1 and Belshazzar’s Feast, which were written consecutively, helped him consolidate his reputation as the most exciting British composer of his generation. Belshazzar’s Feast, a superbly crafted oratorio, vividly depicts the story of Babylon’s excesses and subsequent downfall, brilliantly coloured by the orchestral forces, including two brass bands. Similarly effervescent, volcanic sentiments simmer beneath the surface of the First Symphony, the music conveying the tensions of the 1930s, whilst remaining timeless in its appeal. LSO Live has recently released Sir Colin’s recording of Verdi’s Otello and the first in a cycle of Nielsen Symphonies. Forthcoming releases include Haydn’s The Seasons. “If you like your Walton unleashed at full and scalding voltage, look no further. The [LSO's] trademark virtuosity and panache are so great, and the players' unravelling of Walton's demanding part-writing in the First Symphony so clear, that their performance penetrates straight to the heart of the music...[in Belshazzar] the central 'Feast' and closing 'Hymn of Praise' are each propelled by a rampant percussive firepower...Coleman-Wright is a formidable soloist” BBC Music Magazine, June 2011 **** “Sir Colin Davis here reclaims the vigour of youth and harnesses it to his deep understanding of Walton's work. Where others dwell on surface detail, Davis consistently reveals the larger picture: listen, for example, to the 'writing on the wall' scene in Belshazzar, urgent, violent and ultimately cathartic. The LSO carries this music in its DNA and possesses the means to make it live in concert.” Classic FM Magazine, June 2011 ***** “Davis inspires [the LSC] – and baritone soloist Peter Coleman-Wright – to a reading of technical polish, rhythmic energy and evangelical conviction, with a climax strong enough to convince even the doubters. The First Symphony suffers from a more muffled acoustic, but the performance is so gripping – the LSO at its virtuoso best – that you quickly get swept up in it.” Financial Times, 9th April 2011 **** “Davis emphasizes more than usual the operatic element latent in the work and with which he is perhaps more familiar. Isaiah's opening prophecy of disaster is dramatically sung by the excellent chorus...The work springs instantly to life, and the lament of the Psalm setting 'By the waters of Babylon', one of its finest parts, is imbued with a sense of tragedy...Davis draws beautiful playing from the orchestra.” International Record Review, March 2011 “The LSO Chorus give Walton’s grateful choral writing all they have, and the orchestra revel in his brilliant and unconventional orchestration: E flat clarinet, alto saxophone, exotic percussion and extra brass. Davis, too, proves an absolutely authentic performer. He has come late to this thrilling choral drama on disc, but better that than never.” Sunday Times, 6th March 2011 **** | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
|
|
| |  | Walton: Symphony No. 1 & Violin Concerto
“An exceptional Walton First: Fremaux's approach is less hard-driven than many, but generates a real sense of space, and the Philharmonia responds brilliantly. Accardo delivers the Concerto with gorgeous virtuoso polish.” BBC Music Magazine, May 2011 **** | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
|
|
| |  | Walton conducts Walton
“Surely no one has conducted this music better than the composer himself - witness his incisive, account of Symphony No. 1.” BBC Music Magazine, February 2010 ***** | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
|
|
| |  | Walton: Symphony No. 1 in B flat minor
"Davis made even more of the music's roots in Sibelian symphonic processes building up a relentless sense of momentum … If any more evidence were needed that this is one of the great symphonic first movements in music, this was it." (Daily Telegraph - concert review) High density DSD recording, live at the Barbican Centre, September & December 2005 “When Sir Colin Davis conducted Walton's First Symphony at the Barbican it was greeted by ecstatic reviews – and rightly so. It was as though critics had suddenly rediscovered this iconic work, which so tellingly reflects the mood of uncertainty and tension in the 1930s. The recording bears out that response: the hushed opening seems as though the music is only just emerging into human consciousness. The mystery quickly evaporates as the nagging syncopations of the ostinato figure become more insistent, developing into a powerful climax. The clarity of texture and sharpness of attack add to the impact, with Davis at ease with the jazz element and finding more light and shade than is common. The Scherzo brings big contrasts too; the slow movement sounds as haunting as the opening and then brings warmly lyrical ideas. The extrovert finale again brings clarity in the contrapuntal writing of successive fugatos, leading to a ripe conclusion.
This new recording, the first version on SACD at a low price, finds a welcome place. Yet it is amazing how well the benchmark recording, André Previn's 1966 reading with the LSO (now contained in a two-CD Walton collection – see below), stands up. The sound is fatter, more punchy than on Davis's disc and Previn, early in his conducting career in the UK, is more biting, in the slow movement conveying a chill that exactly suits Walton's sweet-sour inspiration.
This music may have been inspired by a frustrated love affair rather than anything to do with world politics, but it stands as a symbol of its times, and Previn powerfully conveys that. Meanwhile, this new disc earns a very warm welcome.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
|
|
| |  | Sir William Walton Collected Works
“RCA's two-disc collection includes the premiere recording of the Cello Concerto with Piatigorsky – who commissioned the work – and the Boston Symphony under Charles Munch. Here is a highpowered reading, given an upfront recording, commendably full and open for 1959. Similarly Heifetz, who commissioned the Violin Concerto, remains supreme as an interpreter of that work, urgent beyond any rival as well as passionate.
Here he plays with the composer conducting the Philharmonia. The 1950 mono recording has been nicely opened up, putting more air around the sound, making the absence of stereo a minimal drawback. The other two concertante works come in digital versions: Kathryn Stott, originally for Conifer, adventurously going back to the original more elaborate version of the Sinfoniaconcertante, and Yuri Bashmet bringing his yearningly Slavonic temperament and masterly virtuosity to the Viola Concerto.
Bashmet's partners are the ideal combination of Previn and the LSO, and it's Previn's vintage version of the First Symphony with the LSO of an earlier generation that sets the seal on the whole package. Previn has never been matched, let alone surpassed. Also remarkable is the clarity, definition and sense of presence of the 1966 recording, with the stereo spectrum more sharply focused than in the digital recordings.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
|
|
| |  | 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. |
|
|
| |  | Walton: Symphony No. 1 - Berkeley & Britten: Mont Juic
Walton: | Symphony No. 1 in B flat minor |
| |
|
| |  | 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.) |
|
|
| |
|
Gramophone Magazine
Penguin Guide
Building a Library