# Concerning this William Walton chap...



## Fugue Meister (Jul 5, 2014)

So I’ve been listening exclusively to William Walton for the last few weeks. Before this year I’d never heard by him so I suppose I’m overcompensating but I can’t get enough. I feel its rather a shame his output is so little but one shouldn’t really complain when the quality of the output is so first rate. 

Anyway let’s open up a fresh Walton thread… What are some of your favorite Walton works? Do some of you not like him? Why not? 

Oh and on a side and secondary note does anyone here know what key his second symphony is in? Sounds like g minor but my pitch isn’t quite absolute enough..


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

He is an eminently listenable but uneven composer. His string concerti are good, his Shakespeare music, parts of the Partita for orchestra, and of course Façade. I really like parts of Belshazzar's Feast, although there is one place where the music goes instantly from noble to banal in a way that's almost laughable. 

An amusing anecdote: A friend heard him go backstage and congratulate a conductor who had just programmed one of his pieces that it was the best he'd ever heard it. When questioned by the friend, Walton admitted that he always said that so conductors would keep playing him.


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## Dr Johnson (Jun 26, 2015)

"Walton's Second (and last) Symphony was commissioned for the 750th anniversary, in 1957 - 58, of the founding of the city of Liverpool, but, delayed by the composition of the Cello Concerto, it was only premiered in 1960. Scored for a large and colourful orchestra, it is based on the same model as the Third Symphony of Albert Roussel, with a similarly compact duration *and the use of the key of G minor*, and a concentration on angular melodies, sharply dissonant harmonies, and motoric rhythms."

From:

https://www.chandos.net/CD_Notes.asp?CNumber=CHSA 5153


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## Gaspard de la Nuit (Oct 20, 2014)

The first movement of his first symphony is the best movement of any symphony I've ever heard, it takes beethovinian first movement sonata-allegro form and breathes incredible vitality and imagination into it. His second symphony is fascinating, his concerti are at the very least fun to listen to.

His marches are the best marches, granted he does a lot of recycling between them but spitfire, English-speaking people, orb & sceptre, etc. are all amazing.

Really astonishingly brilliant orchestrator, people seem to like Benjamin britten more but Walton instantly struck me like a bolt of cosmic energy or something. Some of his works are definitely in the 1% as far as sheer gutsiness and intensity goes, amazingly sensitive moments as well.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Also, the _Viola Concerto _is recommendable, such as in the Imai recording.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Walton's one-act comedy The Bear (after the short story by Checkhov) is a corker. His main chamber compositions (two string quartets and a piano quartet - two of these three are amongst his earliest works but are not immature) are definitely worth investigating, as are his two late song cycles, Anon in Love and A Song for the Lord Mayor's Table.


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## Headphone Hermit (Jan 8, 2014)

Fugue Meister said:


> I feel its rather a shame his output is so little ..


So little?

I presume you mean he only wrote two symphonies, but he wrote buckets of other stuff, including:

some very well-known film scores and other incidental music (a good series of these on Naxos, for example), loads of 'festive' pieces (marches, fanfares etc), overtures and suites, a cracking viola concerto (along with a violin and cello concerto), an array of chamber music, a good range of choral music including _Belshazzar's Feast_, and a good opera in _Troilus and Cressida_. No doubt I've missed a lot out, but there is plenty here to discover and enjoy - have fun!


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

I seem to have a good bit of Walton sitting on my shelf, but I keep overlooking him despite having enjoyed everything I've heard.
What's wrong with me? I'm off to listen to some Walton right now.


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

Walton's "Variations on a Theme by Hindemith" is well worth hearing, particularly in Szell's magnificent version:


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## musicrom (Dec 29, 2013)

I was introduced to Walton, as a violist, unsurprisingly through his Viola Concerto. At the time, I didn't know much 20th century music, but his music immediately clicked with me and led me to become a big fan of that era. All of his concertante works are really high-quality pieces - his Viola, Violin, and Cello Concertos, as well as his Sinfonia Concertante. His first symphony is also one of my favorites. I really enjoy his musical textures/sound worlds - very intriguing!


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## Avey (Mar 5, 2013)

Concur with the *Viola Concerto* love. An amazing piece of music.

But far more extraordinary and far less performed or recorded is his *String Quartet in A Minor*. A perfect composition for quartet, running the gamut of spirit. The _lento_ is one of the great moments in the quartet repertoire, where a drone manifests into a complex of tones and reflections. It is music that puts you immediately in the place where you first _got_ it, and it lends a certain holy quality to the scene, and thereafter. The final moments in the quartet too, with the strings repeating some sort of musical axiom, one after another, never ceases to elevate me.


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## Fugue Meister (Jul 5, 2014)

Headphone Hermit said:


> So little?
> 
> I presume you mean he only wrote two symphonies, but he wrote buckets of other stuff, including:
> 
> some very well-known film scores and other incidental music (a good series of these on Naxos, for example), loads of 'festive' pieces (marches, fanfares etc), overtures and suites, a cracking viola concerto (along with a violin and cello concerto), an array of chamber music, a good range of choral music including _Belshazzar's Feast_, and a good opera in _Troilus and Cressida_. No doubt I've missed a lot out, but there is plenty here to discover and enjoy - have fun!


Sadly in the past few weeks I've covered everything listed here so far (with the exception of that one-act opera I'll have to look for). So perhaps what I should have said was compared to a Bach or even Beethoven his list of opus' are rather sparse, don't get me wrong that only means more to savor. He's sort of like Borodin in that regard, quality but not quantity.


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## Gaspard de la Nuit (Oct 20, 2014)

Headphone Hermit said:


> So little?
> 
> I presume you mean he only wrote two symphonies, but he wrote buckets of other stuff, including:
> 
> some very well-known film scores and other incidental music (a good series of these on Naxos, for example), loads of 'festive' pieces (marches, fanfares etc), overtures and suites, a cracking viola concerto (along with a violin and cello concerto), an array of chamber music, a good range of choral music including _Belshazzar's Feast_, and a good opera in _Troilus and Cressida_. No doubt I've missed a lot out, but there is plenty here to discover and enjoy - have fun!


I've heard other people complain about the relative scarcity of Walton works, though my two favorite of the traditionally 'great' composers are ravel and Wagner, so I'm used to limited output. There's a brief Walton documentary on YouTube where he says that he's skeptical of writing music with the help of a piano (even though he began to use one anyway) because composers that use a piano "always wrote too much".


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## Antiquarian (Apr 29, 2014)

I have always enjoyed the music he wrote for _Henry V_. In particular part IV, _Touch her soft lips, and part_ but then, I am a romantic old softie at heart.


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## Conor71 (Feb 19, 2009)

Walton is a great Composer - I love the Symphonies, Concertos and his String Quartet.


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