Sir William Walton (1902-1983)
Scapino – A Comedy Overture (1940 rev.1950)
Concerto for Cello and Orchestra (1955-56 rev. 1975)
Symphony No.1 (1931-35)
Jonathan Aasgaard (cello)
Sinfonia of London/John Wilson
rec. 2022 (Concerto), 2023 (Symphony), 2024 (Overture), Church of St. Augustine, Kilburn, London
Chandos CHSA5328 SACD [77]
This is the second volume of Walton’s music recorded by John Wilson and the Sinfonia of London for Chandos. Clearly the A&R team think there is a special case to be made for these artists as the repertoire offered here is hardly unfamiliar fare on the Chandos label. Aside from Scapino – A Comedy Overture in just its second outing on the label (the first was with Bryden Thomson and the LPO as part of the label’s justly praised Walton Edition) both the concerto and symphony have had multiple versions over the years. This is the symphony’s fourth iteration; Gibson/SNO from 1983, Thomson/LPO – 1990, Gardner/BBC SO – 2013 and now Wilson. The Cello Concerto follows a very similar sequence of artists and dates although it can boast an additional more recent version from 2023 with Laura van der Heijden accompanied by Ryan Wigglesworth and the BBC Scottish SO. It is worth noting that this recent recording and the symphony and concerto from Gardner were also recorded in fine SACD sound. As I speculated in my review from earlier this year, I would assume that any recordings from these performers will garner attention regardless of repertoire.
Of course, the three works here are brilliant examples of Walton’s craft with the symphony often included in lists of the finest equivalent works of the 20th Century. The Sinfonia works in concentrated blocks of time and has the benefit – unlike contracted orchestras – of not having to commit to a season’s programming covering standard repertoire. Hence, their recording schedule is dotted across a year – the three works here recorded at sessions across a fourteen-month period. Scapino – A Comedy Overture opens the disc quite brilliantly. This is a virtuosic eight-minute orchestra showcase as evidenced by its commissioning by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as part of its 50th anniversary celebrations with the premiere given in 1941. All performances, including this new one, are of the 1950 (slightly reduced orchestration) revision. This new performance absolutely fizzes with all the characteristics that have come to typify this orchestra’s style. I heard them play this in concert in 2022 which I reviewed here and can vouch for the fact that they can play this well live and in the studio. Notable is the quality of the lyrical passages as well as the scintillating ones. There are some stunningly beautiful solos taken by both wind and string principals here which sit in delightful contrast to the witty brilliance of the rest of the work. The score gives a guideline timing of 8-8¼ minutes which Wilson nails in 8:06. Something even Previn with his vintage LSO or Walton conducting the same orchestra on Lyrita or Bryden Thomson in the aforementioned Chandos recording cannot match. I am loath to imply that a performance works simply because it hits a certain mark on a stopwatch but this is an instance where the fastest version in the catalogue (Litton in Bournemouth and Groves in Liverpool are not far behind) is probably the best.
For a considerable time, the Cello Concerto was considered the weakest of the three Walton string concerti – a view which dates right back to its early negative critical reception – but a look at the catalogue will see an array of international players of the highest stature over the years willing to enshrine their interpretations on disc. Here, Jonathan Aasgaard, steps forward from the principal cellist’s chair of the orchestra to play the solo role. Simply put, he is a superb soloist fully apprised of the technical demands of the score as well as its lyrical heart. This is the first major score Walton wrote after his expressively charged opera Troilus and Cressida into which he poured an enormous amount of time and emotional energy. The very opening of the concerto shares much of the same “haunted end of the day” yearning ache and it is this mood that pervades much of the concerto. Walton’s orchestration from the 1950s on becomes more detailed in its use of extra percussion and instruments such as harp, celeste and orchestral piano. This is where the Chandos recording comes into its own with the care and detail of the orchestration registering with great effect. When reviewing the most recent Chandos performance here, I thought Laura van der Heijden’s playing of the solo part was superb but that the skilled work of the BBC Scottish SO was somewhat blunted by a less than ideal SACD recording – for whatever reason this ‘new’ release (recorded before van der Heijden) is more successful. Aasgaard is very fine throughout the concerto and I feel that Wilson, too, finds a better balance between the pained lyricism of the score and the brittle brilliance of the central Allegro Appassionato than he did in the companion release featuring the violin concerto. Again, I have nothing but praise for the quality of the actual playing – there the violin part was played by the orchestra’s leader Charlie Lovell-Jones – but I found the basic feel too hard pressed. Post-Troilus,Walton’s writing takes on a quite different character from the bold confident works of the 1930s. There is bravado clothed in brilliant orchestration but some kind of emotional uncertainty, too. Aasgaard and van der Heijden are not alone in capturing this paradox but they are the equals of any.
Another fairly recent and very fine SACD performance comes from Nadège Rochat on the Ars label with Paul Meyer conducting the excellent Staatskapelle Weimar. Her approach is generally lighter-toned and more capricious. To that elite group could easily be added Paul Watkins in the other Chandos/SACD/Walton collection with Edward Gardner as well as several others too. In fact, any/all are preferable to my ear than the relatively effortful and rough traversal by dedicatee Gregor Piatigorsky in either his premiere recording on RCA under Charles Munch in Boston or the live UK premiere with Sargent and the BBC SO. Apparently Walton approved of the RCA performance – but he was prone to doling out public praise for almost any recording of his music. Worth noting that Piatigorsky encouraged Walton to revise the ending of the work to achieve a ‘bigger’ dramatic climax rather than the return to the opening pensive material. This points to a fundamental disconnect between the original soloist and the essence of the work that is perhaps reflected in his recordings.
Walton made studio recordings of all his concertante compositions except for this concerto. Conducting his own music Walton was competent if not definitive in the way that say Benjamin Britten can be so considered. However, Walton did conduct Pierre Fournier live with the RPO which is notable for being by some margin the swiftest, most flowing version I know – which rather underlines the view that any tempo indications can always be taken as guidelines rather than holy writ. Fournier has a uniquely free (and effective) style of phrasing that makes for a compelling performance even allowing for the limitations of the 1959 broadcast quality recording. Revisiting many recordings of this work for the purpose of this review has made me appreciate all over again what fine music this is and a score that really ushers in the later phase of Walton’s composing personality thereby distancing him both from his own earlier works but probably more crucially for contemporary critics the prevailing post-war modernist mood. I have to say I have not listened to a poor performance in this survey and I have enjoyed them all but the all-round quality of this newest version puts it very close to the top of the current pile.
It is interesting to note that Chandos has made the concerto the ‘lead’ work on the CD cover/booklet whereas most collectors would probably consider the Symphony No.1 the main offering on this disc. Certainly it was Walton’s longest orchestral score and the one that continues to pack the greatest emotional punch. There are many works – especially written in the 20th Century – that last longer and deploy far more extensive orchestral resources but very few operate at such a level of emotional intensity and raw power across their entire duration. In many ways this would seem to be a work tailor made for the strengths and qualities of John Wilson and The Sinfonia of London, just as it fitted like a glove André Previn and the LSO over fifty years ago (nearly sixty, in fact) when they made the version that still acts as the reference performance. In the interim there have been many very fine performances although it saddens me that so few studio recordings have been made by the great international conductors outside of the UK. This is most certainly not a parochial work but you will look long and hard for commercial recordings from Chicago/New York, Vienna, Berlin or indeed any major musical centre.
Thankfully, as with the concerto, there have been many fine versions over the years and once again this new performance from Wilson and the Sinfonia of London is worthy of consideration alongside the best. The Previn/LSO disc is beginning to show its sonic age even in the latest remasterings with a slightly flat soundstage and climaxes edging towards congestion, but it remains a stunning performance with a sense of coiled-spring tension and barely contained aggression that still provides a compelling listening experience. The main virtues of the new performance here are the outstanding individual and collective playing from the orchestra and objective fidelity to the score. Following the printed score of any music in any performance often leads to a sense of disappointment with details fudged and compromised. Wilson sticks closer to the score than many even down to the tempi marking for the first two movements which are very close to Walton’s printed values. I am not sure anyone – including Previn – is actually at those exact markings. The first movement in particular strikes me as very successful with the composer writing one long arch of ratcheting tension which finally explodes into exultant resolution in the closing bars. Possibly the sheer precision of the playing could be traded for a fraction greater vehemence at a couple of key moments. That said there are several passages where the upper strings are marked “sul G” (to be played high up the lowest “G” string) and here there is a unanimity and weight in attack that is thrilling to hear. As mentioned, the three works recorded here come from three different sets of sessions and while I would assume the technical set-up would be near identical, for the symphony (I listened to the SA-CD stereo layer throughout) I found the horns and timpani to be a fraction distanced – there is a sense of hearing them playing loudly but without ideal presence. Perhaps the less sophisticated closer analogue RCA recording for Previn works in favour of the music in that moment.
In the second movement famously marked Presto con malizia I felt the malice was underplayed with the feel being almost capricious. Again, the actual playing is a genuine tour de force but here Previn at an even quicker basic tempo hurtles down the precipitous mountainside of this movement in a way that does embody the malice Walton sought. Curiously, while Walton does give fairly specific metronome marks for the other three movements, the third is simply indicated Andante con malincolia. Received performing wisdom translates this as a tempo that makes the movement roughly in the eleven to twelve-minute range. Walton’s 1950’s Philharmonia is something of an outlier at 10:20 although there is an oddly detached and impatient 1975 live performance from Boult who pushes through the complete movement in just 7:12 – something was definitely up that day because this is just wrong with the weight and impact of this powerful movement all but thrown away. Wilson’s 9:36 does feel far more fluent and flowing than I am used to hearing but this is balanced by some absolutely stunning solo playing and effective pacing within the movement. The flute entry (Adam Walker one supposes) at the start of the movement is tenderly exquisite. Again, whether this fluid basic tempo allows every ounce of melancholy to be wrung from this movement I am not sure, but this is certainly a valid and carefully wrought performance that is interesting to hear and consider. My sense is that there is a world-weary, all passion spent essence to this music that the weightier tempi allows/illustrates out of with the brioso ed ardentemente of the finale with energy renewed can spring.
The “problem child” status of the finale is well known and to be honest it always does sound like a good movement tacked onto three great ones. Wilson urgently pushes through the opening Maestoso minimising the tempo gear change into the Brioso. The bright basic tempo makes the most of Walton’s exuberant cross rhythms and ensures that the viola-led fugue is every bit of the focosamente (fierily, ardently, passionately) that is indicated. Famously it was this fugal passage that got Walton past the writer’s block he was suffering. In some performances it can sound like a rather dutiful bridge from one good musical idea to another but credit to the Sinfonia players for making this as exciting as they do with biting accents, sharply realised crescendi and brilliantly articulated playing. Again, as a function of the recording balance for all the quality of execution the build-up to entry of the double timpani and percussion was not as overwhelming as I was expecting or hoping for. It is interesting to read the review of the Proms performance these players gave of the work, which singled out this moment for special comment – something not quite so evident here. Wilson does not indulge the tempo of the closing pages pushing resolutely through towards the final bars which is a wise choice papering over a slightly weak ending. I am probably too imprinted by the Previn performance to objectively compare it to any other version. There are other fine performances I enjoy too so Wilson is once again entering a competitive field. I doubt a more accurate and precise version of the score has been recorded which I feel benefits the outer movements in particular. The trade-off is a pair of inner movements which do not exhibit the full range of rage and pain that Walton sought to hide beneath a mask of spoken or written understatement.
As a generous coupling alongside a brilliant Scapino and deeply felt Cello Concerto,this is an impressive programme that showcases again the fine playing of the Sinfonia of London.
Nick Barnard
Buying this recording via the link below generates revenue for MWI, which helps the site remain free
