
You might argue that he is the more dreamy compared with Kyung-Wha Chung on Decca, when his manner is more relaxed, less yearningly intense, a quality which generally makes her performance so magnetic. The marking sognando also comes at the opening of the Violin Concerto, and again Kennedy captures it beautifully. In the finale Kennedy's natural contrasting of the romantic and the scherzando sides of Walton are again most convincing, and the epilogue brings the most magic moment, when the pianissimo return of the first movement main theme is so hushed you hear it as though from the distance. The aching melancholy of that lovely opening, the dreamy quality of the second subject (sognando the marking) are caught more hauntingly. Kennedy is almost as slow as Menuhin and far slower than usual – but his pulse is steadier. The most controversial point of both interpretations of the Viola Concerto comes in the speed of the Andante comodo first movement. Not surprisingly, Kennedy's jazz sympathies give his playing a natural bite in the sharply syncopated passages so typical of Walton, matching Previn's similarly jazz-founded understanding.

The comparison with Kennedy is fascinating. Warmly expressive as Kennedy's mentor Menuhin was in both works, spaciously romantic and characteristically individual in every phrase, he is not a natural Waltonian, even with the composer to guide him. Even next to the finest individual recordings of the two works, differently coupled, Kennedy provides formidable competition. Nigel Kennedy has stepped in, and – with the uniquely expert guidance of André Previn – produced a recording of both works which in this coupling is unlikely to be bettered for a long time. In this recording the soloist is Tasmin Little whose acclaimed recordings of concertos by Britten, Elgar, Delius, and Moeran on Chandos have already established her as one of the foremost interpreters of British music for the violin. The solo part reflects not only the legendary virtuosity for which Heifetz was famous, but also the sweetness and purity of his playing of long lyrical lines. The Violin Concerto was written in 1938 in response to a commission from Jascha Heifetz. It is a highly virtuosic work with a remarkable expressive range, in turns powerful and broad, malicious, melancholic, and majestic. 1, in 1935, was a triumph, immediately gaining the work an honoured place in British music which it has never lost. The first complete performance of his Symphony No. The obvious next step for Walton was to compose a symphony and he was duly commissioned to do so by Sir Hamilton Harty in 1932.

Walton burst onto the British musical scene in his twenties, the success of works such as Façade, the Viola Concerto, and Belshazzar’s Feast establishing him in both the avant-garde and the mainstream of British composers. 1)Įdward Gardner, a Chandos exclusive artist, conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in two masterpieces by William Walton, the Violin Concerto and Symphony No. Recorded: Watford Colosseum: 18 September 2013 (Violin Concerto) Fairfield Halls, Croydon: 3 and 4 February 2014 (Symphony No.
#Tempo of walton violin concerto download
Official Digital Download – Source: theCLASSICAL|shop | Booklet & Front cover | © Chandos Records 1 & Violin Concerto – BBC Symphony Orchestra, Edward Gardner, Tasmin Little (2014)įLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96kHz | Time – 1:15:45 minutes | 1.28 GB | Genre: Classical
