“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, August 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, August 2010 ***
Orchestre National de Lille, Owain Arwel Hughes
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.
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.
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