Walton: Richard III

 

If Sir William Walton's scores to Henry V reveled in epic war adventure (BLOG) and Hamlet in the darkness of interpersonal schemes (BLOG), Richard III receives the best of both worlds. Akin to Henry V, Walton makes sure to keep some of the musical cues in Shakespeare's Elizabethan period, with sizeable solos for pipe organ and harpsichord played by the inimitable Ian Watson, as well as Renaissance-style orchestral dances. Thus a certain musical brightness accompanies the more dramatic bits, making for a goodly variety of musical cues, an aspect (understandably) missing from Hamlet.

Sir John Gielgud is only allotted one track to soliloquy as Richard III, the famous 'Now is the Winter of our discontent'. Christopher Palmer opines the success of music mixed with spoken words in the liner notes, but I disagree. The few moments when music overlaps speech, I find it mostly distracting.

But overall, this is a fine score. Walton is melodic and colorful, nearly playful at times, and Palmer arranges the score into sizeable chunks for the listener, instead of a host of endless tiny tracks. I don't know how close this 'Shakespearean Scenario' cleaves to the original film score, but I know we get a lot more in Palmer's scenarios than the Matheson concert suites of yore.

The short cues from Macbeth continue the festivities. Here, Walton really leans into the Scottish backdrop, filling the music with drones and woodwind chanters galore. The modal harmonies of Macbeth keep the music from becoming to similar to Richard III as well, despite the pomp and circumstance of the two scores. There is a musical weight in the trudging of the march which is depicted gloriously here.

Palmer also creates a film-score suite from the George Bernard Shaw play-based film Major Barbara, a curious edition to this Chandos series, as it doesn't include Shakespeare nor Sir Laurence Olivier. Yet, more Walton film music is always a celebration.

While the 'Opening and End Titles' are appropriately engaging, it is the inner sequences which shine out as something special. 'Undershaft's Factory' sounds out as almost Prokofiev-ian, with the sharp clink of the anvil, while the 'Love Scene' is allowed to unfold Romantically as only film of this era could.

As in the other Walton Shakespeare volumes, Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields do not hold back, taking care to do full justice to Walton's (at that time) 50-year-old scores. I own the 2000s remastered reissued releases, but I will post the original 1990's artwork at the bottom of this blog post.

 

 

Works
Richard III (43.57)
Macbeth (5.55)
Major Barbara (10.37)


Soloists
Sir John Gielgud, narrator
Ian Watson, organ & harpsichord

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

Label: Chandos
Year: 1991; 2007
Total Timing: 60.45

 

 

 

Another fine reworking of Walton's Shakespearean film scores from Walton scholar Christopher Palmer. 

If I still greatly prefer the overall thrust of Henry V, Richard III takes the best of that and Hamlet, two greatly different musical scores for the silver screen.

Kudos to Sir Neville Marriner for covering four volumes of Walton's film music on Chandos, and doing so with life and vitality throughout. Hear them all!

 

 

 

Find more Walton recordings HERE!
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