Walton: Hamlet

 

If I was quite taken with Sir William Walton's score to Henry V (BLOG), mainly for its flag-waving war time history, the composer's score for the Shakespearean tragedy Hamlet is quite different. Turgid and sullen, the music suits the dour story very well. If I am taken with any portion, however, it would be the opening and closing numbers. 

Otherwise, there are a bunch of moody set pieces, ones which serve the story well, if not acting quite as successfully as a concert piece, here put together by Christopher Palmer for the concert stage. The tension reaches its highest precipice in the 'Retribution' and 'Threnody' sections towards the end, landing the work on its concluding track in fine mettle dramatically. Contrasting, however, is the sort-of play within a play set piece called 'The Mousetrap', which whisks the listener away from the tragedy for a few musical moments, an appreciated segment of musical variety.

If Shakespeare's spoken word was inextricable from Palmer's concert version in Henry V, here in Hamlet, the speaking is separately tracked, where the listener can remove it from the music, if so moved. While Sir John Gielgud is excellent as a a sudden world-weary ruler in his two short moments here, I find his weariness comes across more from his vocal age than from the tragic circumstances amidst a weight of terrible choices ahead of him. In this case, the previous use of Christopher Plummer may have been a better choice, for his verbiage bears an energy away from the passage of many years. After all, Hamlet was a teen or 20-something, not an old man.

I think the Suite from the film As You Like It works better as a musical whole than Hamlet. Best of all, one can hear the musical swashbuckling from a forested adventure, a nice contrast for this musical program. The vocal solo from Catherine Bott places 'Under the Greenwood Tree' in a musical Shakespearean time, an aspect which hasn't occurred as of yet in Walton's film music here. Bott's is not a favorite voice of mine here, where she sounds stilted and under-sung, but this is a short addition cut from the final score. As I understand it, though, the film itself is not of particular high quality.

The playing from the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields under the direction of Sir Neville Marriner, plus the excellent sonics from Chandos, are all of high quality. The liner notes place the musical numbers within the context of the story, always appreciated for those less familiar with these Shakespeare plays made into films.

I own the reissue of this recording from 2007. I will add pictures of the original 1990 release at the bottom of this blog post.

 

 

Works
Hamlet (39.12)
As You Like It (12.34)

Soloists
Sir John Gielgud, narrator
Catherine Bott (soprano)

Ensemble
Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields
Sir Neville Marriner, conductor

Label: Chandos
Year: 1990; 2007
Total Timing: 51.58

 

 

 

While I like this film music from Walton just fine, Hamlet didn't strike me as much as it did Henry V.

Of course, this could simply be the difference between an historical epic and a dramatic tragedy. As a musical contrast, As You Like It works quite well as a concert suite.

 

 

 

 

Find more Walton recordings HERE!