Walton: Symphony No 1; Violin Concerto

Walton Symphony No 1, Violin Concerto
    
Artist: Tasmin Little, Edward Gardner, BBC Symphony Orchestra, William Walton
Genre: Classical
Label: Chandos

Oldham's most celebrated musical son, William Walton, was in his prime when he completed his First Symphony in 1935 (commissioned and premiered by Hamilton Harty) and his Violin Concerto in 1939 (commissioned by the great Jascha Heifetz). Edward Gardner approaches the symphony as if with a highlighter, wanting to heighten its driving energy, emphasise its touches of romantic melancholy, and make sure that no tune goes unmilked. There may be more momentary peaks as a result, and a lot of passing detail is extremely well caught. But the sweep of the work suffers in the process. The approach works better with veteran Waltonian Tasmin Little in the Violin Concerto, a work where the romanticism is a lot closer to the surface. url.ie/f1f2

Michael Dervan

Michael Dervan

Michael Dervan is a music critic and Irish Times contributor