Walton: Cello Concerto

 

If you take a gander at the cover of this recording, the photographic image is of Giardana la Mortella in Ischia Italy. As I understand it, it is an impressive property with a monumental Mediterranean garden open to the public, one cultivated by Susana Walton, Sir William Walton's wife. There, you will find a rock with a memorial to William Walton, his ashes buried at the spot. In addition, there are areas dedicated to learning more about Walton's life as a composer, as well as tributes to his wife. Naples, here I come!

In any case, the big item on this recording is Walton's Cello Concerto, a work finished well after his other two solo string concertos for violin and viola. Really, the three concertos are all of a piece, opening in mysterious motions, with a gentle melancholic seriousness hanging over the proceedings. While the composer always brought his own brand of lush Romanticism strongly to the fore, I detect a little more room for chromaticism, dissonance, and anxiety in this concerto compared to the others. Additionally, Walton continues to place a Scherzo in the central movement, suggesting a blueprint for the composer's structural thinking.

The third movement, however, disrupts any previous preconceptions from the listener. Here, Walton opens in a brooding state of mind, only to link to solo cadenzas opposite orchestral-only portions in a back and forth manner. This setup certainly allows both the soloist and ensemble to show off separately, yet creates a new sort of finale for the composer as well.

I really enjoy the first movement most of all, though, where Walton brings back the first-movement ideas at the conclusion of the concerto to tie everything together. I love the chromatic-mediant harmonic progressions of the outer movements; they sound of an epic-scale soundworld, yet are placed musically by Walton in a rather contemplative setting. Most interesting!

Some have suggested, such as liner-note contributor Christopher Palmer, that the Cello Concerto moves in a way as to feature the natural world, such as that experienced in Walton's garden in Italy. I am not sure I can make such a far leap, but I am also not the Walton scholar; merely an eager set of ears.

The five-minute Passacaglia for Cello is a short essay for solo cello alone. I haven't lived with it enough to make an individual proclamation as a piece of music, but it is a pleasant extension of the Cello Concerto. Plus, I imagine it to be a bit of fun toss-off for a cello soloist to show off their skills.

The Improvisations on an Impromptu of Benjamin Britten is a little more spare compared to how Walton normally orchestrates. The first-movement Lento pairs nervy string tremolos against a wind instrument or two, with the score full of wide open spaces, an unusual feature for the composer. The rest of the sections across the work, though, allows the composer to do what he will, and eventually more and more Walton comes to the fore.

I did revisit the Impromptu movement from Britten's Piano Concerto, of which Walton's Improvisations are based (BLOG). Walton relies heavily on Britten's harmonic progressions, which in themselves are rather singular, where Walton uses them to good use, and in many varied ways. I quite enjoyed the Variations on a Theme of Hindemith as well, and I think I can place these Britten Improvisations right alongside it, even if I might have been uncertain at first listen.

As of the writing of this blog post, this is the third recording I have heard Walton's Partita for Orchestra within a week. Of the three, from Edward Gardner, Martyn Brabbins, and now Bryden Thomson, I think this one is most effectively performed. Some of these feelings has to do with the acoustic here, recorded in Thomson's preferred St. Jude's-on-the-Hill. The Chandos engineers really knew how to tame that space for their purposes, but when the music really needs to let loose and wallop the listener, they also knew how to open up the acoustic to give the listener the goods.

Speaking of Bryden Thomson, here with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, he was a firm hand at the podium. I sense he kept the LPO in close check in the Cello Concerto, letting British cellist Raphael Wallfisch lead the music, here closer to the longer timings of Piatigorsky. Yet in the Partita, I feel Thomson' grip loosen, allowing the ensemble to rip roar through the open and close, although this is still a grandiose reading, far from Szell's razor-sharp account. The middle Pastoral Siciliana is always a pleasure to hear, a work which, in totality, I have come to greatly enjoy.

 

 

 
Works
Cello Concerto (30.05)
Passacaglia for Cello (5.20)
Improvisations on an Impromptu of Britten (15.17)
Partita for Orchestra (17.34)

Soloist
Raphael Wallfisch, cello

Ensemble
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Bryden Thomson, conductor

Label: Chandos
Year: 1991
Total Timing: 68.45

 

 

I think I would pick up Walton's Violin or Viola Concertos before his Cello Concerto, but let it not be said Walton couldn't innovate upon his own compositional style.

The rest of the orchestral works are wonderfully procured by Bryden Thomson and the LPO. Especially if you enjoy a grand musical vision of Walton.

 

 

 

 

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