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This white-hot account of Walton's Symphony No 1 was recorded during live performances at the Barbican in September and December 2005.
Yet again, the London Symphony Orchestra has scored a hands-down success for their in-house record label, LSO Live.
They have certainly never sounded more inspired than they do here, and the reason is not hard to identify: their relationship with Principal Conductor Sir Colin Davis over the last decade has resulted in performances of the highest emotion possible.
William Walton was one of the key players in British music during the mid-twentieth century. His ballet Façade, the Viola Concerto (1929) and the exciting oratorio Belshazzar's Feast (rumoured to be scheduled at the Proms this summer with Bryn Terfel in the title role) all established his importance, but he struggled to write his first symphony.
It was started in 1932, with the slow movement the first to be completed. By 1934, he had completed the first three movements. But although he had drafted the end of the final movement, he couldn't complete it. So the symphony was premiered without its finale in the Queen's Hall, London, in December 1934. The following November, its first complete performance was given, and the Decca Record Company recorded it less than a month later.
The result is the most enduring symphony by any English composer since Elgar. Each of its four movements has something very special about it, and although there is no official programme, it is difficult to resist the music's absorbing qualities.
Sir Colin has long been a champion of English music, but even by his standards this is a vital performance. The LSO grapple with Walton's technically demanding score with apparent ease, giving a suitable vibrancy to this massive orchestration.
Musically dramatic, the first movement arises from nowhere, with deep brass sustaining low notes, out of which the virtuosic LSO strings gradually emerge with a palpitating accompanying figure. The lingering melody is heard first on the oboe, piercing the ear with its heartbreak. More than anything, the recurring melodic turn is played with dashing flair by the whole ensemble, giving the music a dancing allure.
The high spirits of the first movement are carried over to the Scherzo. The shortest of the four sections of the piece, it is nevertheless the most colourful. The dialogue between the pizzicato strings and clarinet/flute combination is irresistible, while the syncopated rhythms have a spicy kick to them in Sir Colin's hands.
This performance of the slow movement is extraordinary. The conductor and orchestra are at one in sculpting the music into a deeply spiritual edifice of sound, melancholy flute and cello solos melting into a long, meandering theme and a huge outburst from the strings and brass.
From its triumphant fanfare opening onwards, the finale is the symphony's powerful apotheosis. The trumpets have bright, secure intonation; the flutes flutter nimbly in their high register; and the strings' trills show off the LSO's masculine attack at its greatest. And even more than in the live concert, the complex fugal section is deftly woven into its more splendorous surroundings, the contrapuntal lines sounding remarkably lucid in this well-produced recording.
When the CD arrived, I was slightly concerned by its relative brevity at 45 minutes. Yet after seven playings, I find it so captivating that I don't feel the need for more. It's one of their strongest releases yet.
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