Composer: William Walton
Performer: James Ehnes
Orchestra: BBC Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Edward Gardner
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Chandos
Release: 2018
Size: 1.11 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Viola Concerto (1961 version)
01 I. Andante comodo
02 II. Vivo, con molto preciso
03 III. Allegro moderato
Sonata for String Orchestra
04 I. Allegro
05 II. Presto
06 III. Lento
07 IV. Allegro molto
Partita for Orchestra
08 I. Toccata: Brioso
09 II. Pastorale Siciliana: Andante comodo
10 III. Giga Burlesca: Allegro gioviale
In this third volume of Edward Gardner’s Walton series with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, James Ehnes leaves his violin to tackle the taxing soloist role in the Viola Concerto. In a recent Strad interview, Ehnes confesses: ‘This is a piece I have loved since I was a teenager, so it is wonderful that the opportunity has come my way to record it… With Walton’s Viola Concerto, none of the writing is impossible but a lot of it is close. And in a way that is exactly where you want it to be: on the edge of technical limitations. There’s a tremendous amount of excitement in that.’ This album in surround sound also features two much later works: the 1957 Partita for Orchestra and the Sonata for String Orchestra, adapted in 1971 from the String Quartet in A minor of 1945 – 47. There is a striking contrast between the uncomfortable modernism of the up-and-coming young composer’s Viola Concerto and the relaxed brilliance of the mature Partita. But the Sonata shows Walton late in his life re-engaging as an arranger with his earlier manner, and so with the characteristic vein of restless unease that runs through most of his output.