Our Summer BAL 71: Walton Symphony 2

[edashtav]

I have Szell ,Previn and Daniel too. I must express a preference for Szell - much the most exciting to my ears.

Szell was akin to a gazelle, he bounded ahead and it took 50 years before a pack of British conductors came within touching distance of his precise and sensitive interpretation. One of the great recordings of the 1960s?

[Pulcinella]

Well, I've now listened to the six versions I have (one twice, to confirm initial thoughts) and streamed the Ashkenazy (agree about the sound quality).
I'm sure edashtav will give us a more detailed and critical evaluation (the timings of movements in the different versions is interesting).
I don't have a score, so my reactions are based on overall impressions rather than, say, any adherence to the detail of the score.

As anticipated, Szell still reigns supreme, but the other two that particularly appealed are the Previn and Mackerras, which both happen to use the LSO, to my mind one of the most responsive orchestras, particularly in livelier jazzy and rhythmically intricate pieces (think Bernstein and Copland).
From the very first (up)beat (surely a challenging start, which sounds like it might be a brute to bring off well and accurately) right through to the fugato at the end of the third movement (where some of the performances don't seem too happy, though nothing disastrous happens) both Previn and Mackerras seem to me have a sense of the overall structure of the piece and present it as a coherent work rather than a disjointed set of three movements. In both, the languor of an Ischian summer afternoon hangs over the middle movement rather than the somewhat pedestrian (plodding) approach I sensed in some of the other performances.

Happy to be contradicted and proved wrong! The Hyperion Brabbins still appeals (though I wasn't too persuaded by the BBC MM version by the same performers; given that that was a live performance in 1995, his interpretation might have 'matured' since).

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Thank you, Pulci, for starting this thread. It’s a work I’ve sometimes thought about, but didn’t investigate because received opinion in my younger days was that it wasn’t very good. But I shouldn’t have let this bother me; I only investigated Strauss’s Alpine Symphony because it was derided as being unworthy.

Thank to this thread, I’ve been listening to Bryden Thomson’s recording, and I’m very much won over by it. It’s quite a revelation. I’ll be following this thread closely.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

...and the oddly named English Northern Philharmonia .....

The name once given to the Orchestra of Opera North when playing as a concert orchestra.

[AmpH]

I like this performance :-

[edashtav]

The name once given to the Orchestra of Opera North when playing as a concert orchestra.

I'd forgotten that.

[Edgy 2]

Thank you, Pulci, for starting this thread. It’s a work I’ve sometimes thought about, but didn’t investigate because received opinion in my younger days was that it wasn’t very good. But I shouldn’t have let this bother me; I only investigated Strauss’s Alpine Symphony because it was derided as being unworthy.

Thank to this thread, I’ve been listening to Bryden Thomson’s recording, and I’m very much won over by it. It’s quite a revelation. I’ll be following this thread closely.

I'm glad Bryden Thomson's recording has been mentioned,I really rate it,though not as highly as my other 2 verions,Previn and especially Szell

[BBMmk2]

MrsBBM bought this for my birthday, well, one of them! The LSO/Previn, with some Constant Lambert works on, including The Rio Grande. A marvellous recording!

[Pulcinella]

I like this performance :-

MrsBBM bought this for my birthday, well, one of them! The LSO/Previn, with some Constant Lambert works on, including The Rio Grande. A marvellous recording!

That's one of two incarnations I have the recording in, BBM, the other being a 2CD double fforte set with Haitink's version of S1, the Bournemouth/Berglund Cello concerto (Tortelier) and Violin concerto (the incomparable Ida Haendel), and Previn's recordings of Portsmouth Point and Scapino.

The liner notes say that the symphony was recorded in Abbey Road Studio 1 on 12 February 1973, the year before that Proms performance (which I look forward to watching later; many thanks for posting it, AmpH).

[antongould]

I like this performance :-

So do I ..... thank you AmpH .....

[Pulcinella]

Oops!
My association with an Ischian summer (in post #17) is incorrect: building didn't start on the Waltons' house there until 1961, and they didn't move in until August 1962, according to Kennedy's Portrait of Walton.

The book does though confirm the intricate start of the work, as the first four bars are given (in a reduced two-stave form; it's not entirely clear which instruments play which notes).
It's 3/4 time signature, tempo indication Allegro molto, with crotchet equals 138–144 c.
The clarinet has a downward triplet on the last quaver of the first bar, running into a quaver beat for woodwind at the start of the next, with an upward quintuplet (taking a whole beat) at the top, and strings (second violins and violas it would seem) starting their semiquaver rhythm that continues through the next two bars on the second quaver.

[BBMmk2]

That's one of two incarnations I have the recording in, BBM, the other being a 2CD double fforte set with Haitink's version of S1, the Bournemouth/Berglund Cello concerto (Tortelier) and Violin concerto (the incomparable Ida Haendel), and Previn's recordings of Portsmouth Point and Scapino.

The liner notes say that the symphony was recorded in Abbey Road Studio 1 on 12 February 1973, the year before that Proms performance (which I look forward to watching later; many thanks for posting it, AmpH).

Looks like a great set! Haitink’s recordings of British repertoire are legendary.

[edashtav]

Oops!
My association with an Ischian summer (in post #17) is incorrect: building didn't start on the Waltons' house there until 1961, and they didn't move in until August 1962, according to Kennedy's Portrait of Walton.

The book does though confirm the intricate start of the work, as the first four bars are given (in a reduced two-stave form; it's not entirely clear which instruments play which notes).
It's 3/4 time signature, tempo indication Allegro molto, with crotchet equals 138–144 c.
The clarinet has a downward triplet on the last quaver of the first bar, running into a quaver beat for woodwind at the start of the next, with an upward quintuplet (taking a whole beat) at the top, and strings (second violins and violas it would seem) starting their semiquaver rhythm that continues through the next two bars on the second quaver.

Surely, your earlier assertion in post 17 re Ischia was perfectly correct, Pulcie ? The Waltons rented a property in Forio, Ischia for many years before they bought the ground for their final home at La Mortella. In the earlier years of the 1950s the Waltons spent their summers in Forio. After c. 1956, they regarded Italy and Ischia as their only home. Russell Page was designing the gardens of their final home in 1956. I imagine that most of the Second Symphony was written on Ischia, and it's no surprise if its slow movement reeks of Cressida, Susana and Summer Siestas in the Giardini la Mortella on the Walton's adopted isle.

[Pulcinella]

Surely, your earlier assertion in post 17 re Ischia was perfectly correct, Pulcie ? The Waltons rented a property in Forio, Ischia for many years before they bought the ground for their final home at La Mortella. In the earlier years of the 1950s the Waltons spent their summers in Forio. After c. 1956, they regarded Italy and Ischia as their only home. Russell Page was designing the gardens of their final home in 1956. I imagine that most of the Second Symphony was written on Ischia, and it's no surprise if its slow movement reeks of Cressida, Susana and Summer Siestas in the Giardini la Mortella on the Walton's adopted isle.

I got thrown by the dates in the Kennedy book, but you are right: they refer merely to the building of the house.

This is from one of the La Mortella websites (https://www.ischiareview.com/la-mortella-gardens.html; it's good to see that the gardens are open!).

In 1956, after having spent the previous 6 years divided between 6 month stints in London and Ischia, the couple decided to buy their new property at La Mortella. Having understood the potential of the site, they decided to call in landscape expert, Russell Page, who set about transforming the stone quarry on a volcanic hill, into a tropical garden paradise with an extraordinary and fascinating array of rare and exotic plant life.

[BBMmk2]

I got thrown by the dates in the Kennedy book, but you are right: they refer merely to the building of the house.

This is from one of the La Mortella websites (https://www.ischiareview.com/la-mortella-gardens.html; it's good to see that the gardens are open!).

In 1956, after having spent the previous 6 years divided between 6 month stints in London and Ischia, the couple decided to buy their new property at La Mortella. Having understood the potential of the site, they decided to call in landscape expert, Russell Page, who set about transforming the stone quarry on a volcanic hill, into a tropical garden paradise with an extraordinary and fascinating array of rare and exotic plant life.

Their garden was quite exemplary, I hear.