Walton: Symphonies & Concertos [Import]

Editorial Reviews
Album Details
This Programme Conveniently Brings Together Walton’s Two Symphonies and Three Concertos Onto Two Well-filled Discs (Around 155 Minutes). This is Music of Wide Contrasts — from the Spiky Wit, Rhythmic Vitality and Brilliance that Characterises the First Symphony and the Violin Concerto, to the Mediterranean Warmth and Romanticism that Permeates the Cello Concerto. These Works Cover a Major Part of Walton’s Creative Life with the Earliest Piece Being the Viola Concerto of 1929 (Revised in 1961 — as Recorded Here) Through to the Second Symphony — First Heard in Edinburgh in September 1960.

Tracks:

Symphony No. 38 in D major, K504 "Prague"
Symphony No. 39 in E flat major, K543

Tracks:

Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K500
Symphony No. 41 in C major, K551

Tracks:

Beethoven - The Ruins of Athens Overture, Missa solemnis Benedictus, Symphony No. 7 (Allegro con brio) and Piano Concerto No. 1 (Rondo: Allegro)
Dvorak - Slavic Dances, Op. 46 no. 8
Vivaldi - "Summer" (Presto, tempo impetuoso, d'estate)
Mendelssohn - A Midsummer Night's Dream and "Italian" Symphony Schumann

Album Description

This incredible package includes 2CDs of Mozart's most loved symphonies (numbers 38-41) plus an additional cd of extracts from some of the orchestra's greatest albums.

Walton: Symphonies & Concertos [Australia]

Average customer rating:

Best Walton Big bang for your buck-EVER!

Walton: Symphonies & Concertos [Australia]
Wha Chung , Neubauer , Ashkenazy , and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Manufacturer: Decca
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

The Decca Records Store | Specialty Stores | Music
ASIN: B00076YNHS
Release Date: 2005-02-02

Tracks:

Symphony No.1
Concerto For Violin & Orchestra
Concerto For Violoncello And Orchestra
Concerto For Viola And Orchestra
Symphony No.2

Album Details

This Programme Conveniently Brings Together Walton's Two Symphonies and Three Concertos Onto Two Well-filled Discs (Around 155 Minutes). This is Music of Wide Contrasts — from the Spiky Wit, Rhythmic Vitality and Brilliance that Characterises the First Symphony and the Violin Concerto, to the Mediterranean Warmth and Romanticism that Permeates the Cello Concerto. These Works Cover a Major Part of Walton's Creative Life with the Earliest Piece Being the Viola Concerto of 1929 (Revised in 1961 — as Recorded Here) Through to the Second Symphony — First Heard in Edinburgh in September 1960.

Customer Reviews:

Best Walton Big bang for your buck-EVER!.......2005-11-20

CD contains the Violin Concerto, Viola Concerto, Cello Concerto and Symphonies 1 and 2. An amazing 160 minutes of wonderful music.
These are arguably the masterpieces of Walton's output. The Violin concerto and Viola Concerto are considered by most professional critics, to be the definitive versions. So in plain language.... After comparing Chung (violin)/Previn/LSO and Neubauer (viola)/Litton/Bournemouth SO to others, I have to agree. Chung and Neubauer have a brooding intensity with a tender depth of expression and great tone, emotion and virtuosity that matches or supercedes any performance out there. The Symphonies are harder (for me) to critique because they are 40 and 28 minutes long with no featured instrumentalist to guage. All I can say is they are very dynamic, have plenty of warmth and excitement. A bravura performance by Ashkenazy and the RPO. I can't detect a mis-step of any of the performance. Though I have nothing to compare them to. And a most important point...the sound is SPECTACULAR. From the quietest moments to the ocassional bombast every sonic has the greatest detail while still being warm, spacious and lush with smooth deep bottom end. this goes for the entire CD. A must have for all Walton lovers.

Walton: Symphonies 1 & 2, Cello Concerto, etc

Average customer rating:

Making a case for the curious Walton
Feeble and Embarrassing Eclecticism!
Great Music, Dumb Programming
FEW ALTONIAN ALTERNATIVES TO THIS RELEASE!

Walton: Symphonies 1 & 2, Cello Concerto, etc

Manufacturer: EMI Classics
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

Modern & 20th Century | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

Alban Berg: Violin Concerto "To the Memory of an Angel" (1935) / Wolfgang Rihm: "Time Chant" Music for Violin & Orchestra (1991-92) - Anne-Sophie Mutter
The Third Man - Criterion Collection (2-Disc Edition)

ASIN: B000026BT0
Release Date: 1999-11-02

Tracks:

Symphony No.1 In B Flat Minor: I. Allegro Assai - Philharmonia Orchestra
Symphony No.1 In B Flat Minor: II. Presto, Con Malizia - Philharmonia Orchestra
Symphony No.1 In B Flat Minor: III. Andante Con Malinconia - Philharmonia Orchestra
Symphony No.1 In B Flat Minor: IV. Maestoso: Brioso Ed Ardentemente - Philharmonia Orchestra
Cello Concerto: I. Moderato - Paul Tortelier
Cello Concerto: II. Allegro Appassionato - Paul Tortelier
Cello Concerto: III. Lento - Allegro Molto - Paul Tortelier

Tracks:

Symphony No.2: I. Allegro Molto - Andre Previn
Symphony No.2: II. Lento Assai - Andre Previn
Symphony No.2: III. Passacaglia: Theme Variations, Fugata & Coda - Scherzando - Andre Previn
Overture: Portsmouth Point - Andre Previn
Comedy Overture: Scapino - Andre Previn
Violin Concerto: I. Andante Tranquillo - Ida Haendel
Violin Concerto: II. Presto Capriccioso A La Napolitana - Ida Haendel
Violin Concerto: III. Vivace - Ida Haendel

Customer Reviews:

Making a case for the curious Walton.......2006-05-24

The amusingly splenetic review listed below will mystify newcomers to Walton. He is revered as a pioneering modernist in England, aging into a thorny national institution. Walton's idiom was brash and macho, but touched by romanticism and forever faithful to tonality. In America his equivalent would be William Schuman, equally aggressive but timid as modernism goes.

Both composers survive through a handful of works. Depending on how you look at it, Walton was lucky or unlucky to strike gold once only in each genre: he wrote one great film score (Henry V), one march (Crown Imperial), one overture (Portsmouth Point), one concerto (for viola), and one symphony (the First). His multiple attempts to follow up these successes generally fell flat.

For some listeners, however, Walton's entire output is despicable. Either they are offended by his "ripoffs from Sibelius," as our raging reviewer calls them--Walton was a magpie of scraps from better composers. Or else his music just falls badly on the ear. I certainly feel that way about Belshazzar's Feast, a beloved choral staple in the UK that makes my skin crawl, as does Walton's sophisticated whimsy in Facade, set to poetic trifles by Edith Sitwell. Sit well is what his music often doesn't.

I find that Haitink's civilized version of Sym. #1 makes a good case for it by erasing some of its bluntness and malice (yes, Walton's harsher music strikes some critics as outright malicious). It is better recorded and played than Previn's Telarc version with the Royal Phil. I also enjoyed the brief Portsmouth Point, but you have to be a Walton fan to get much from the other works on this bargain two-fer. Even the beloved Ida Haendel couldn't get me to warm up to the violin concreto. I like Walton's first tries and that's about it.

Feeble and Embarrassing Eclecticism!.......2005-07-10

I had the great misfortune to listen to the Walton Symphony No. 1 recently. Although I am not generally a fan of English composers after Purcell, I wanted to be openminded and listened to the entire piece. It was extremely difficult not to burst out laughing at the beginning and end of the slow movement, since both are shamelessly plagiarized from the slow movement of the Sibelius Fourth. The finale began with a similarly laughable rip-off from a Sibelius finale, and proceeded to a deadpan academic fugato (!!!!) -- shades of neo-Victorianism, the ghost of Mendelssohn and Handel, no doubt? -- but most preposterous of all is the end of the finale. After bars and bars of deafeningly loud clangor, for little internal musical or logical reason, we are treated to yet another Sibelius rip-off: namely a borrowing of the end of the finale of the Sibelius Fifth (i.e. stark, individual chords isolated from each other by silences). The score is loaded with tawdry, agogic effects-for-effects' sake, reminding one that Walton made his bread by film music. This is the musical equivalent of "cold spaghetti on toast," something only consumed in the UK. If you can think this helpless eclecticism and cheap striving for effects is serious musical modernity, you obviously have no understanding of real modernism (i.e. Schoenberg, Berg, Webern, Stravinsky, Boulez... all coincidentally not English!). The sad thing is that Walton felt obliged to put these silly Sibelius rip-offs in to legitimize himself within a backward, anti-modern un-musical province whose idolatry of Sibelius is mystifying (although perhaps it fits with the equally mystifying English worship of Handel's Messiah and of poor academic Mendelssohn, who wrote his worst music in England, like the dreadful "St. Paul"). Even among English quasi-"moderns," this piece is inferior to Tippett's first two symphonies, or some of Britten's better work; nor can it hold a candle to Elgar at his best. If one wants "moderate modernism" (i.e. not atonality), there are still far better 20th century tonal composers to be discovered, like Roussel, Nielsen, Enesco, or some of Martinu... (I found myself longing for even the honest trashiness of, say, Copland's Third Symphony, which is vulgar but at least vividly so.) - A piece of sheer musical perversity. -

Great Music, Dumb Programming.......2003-09-09

First, the music on this set is very good. The proximate reason for my buying it was hearing Sym #2 in the car, and it was so interesting I stayed sitting in the car until the end to see what this wonderful, romantic yet modern music was. But this set, like most such 2-fers, and even many full priced discs, suffers from dumb programming. It's as though the manufacturers think merely cramming a bunch of music onto a disc creates a good value. On each of these discs, the big symphony is first and the concertos are last, making 2 decidedly anti-climactic and unsatisfactory listening experiences. I won't even go into 2 overtures in a row AFTER a big symphony! Silly will suffice. This all leads me to a couple of conclusions. One is that the folks who make classical CD's have never been to a concert, because if they had, they would know the big symhony is always last. Second, is that they never listen to the discs they make, again, because if they did, and possessed an ounce of common sense, they would notice how anti-climactically frustrating their programming is. They might also notice, big fluctuations in volume between pieces, adding to the annoying properties of their work. In short, this is still good music, but program it yourself.

FEW ALTONIAN ALTERNATIVES TO THIS RELEASE!.......2000-12-22

Yet another gem in the budget firmament: A riveting "two-fer" from the EMI Double Forte catalogue, completely cost efficient, fully-packed with absolutely prime Walton--- no, make that essential Walton--- top-notch performances of each and every work, and excellent sound throughout. Haitink's reading of Symphony No. 1, with the Philharmonia, is a taut, arching, powerfully sustained fifty-one minute excursion into orchestral flourish and color, held beautifully together by its "Andante Con Malinconia" third movement. The more generally moody, less exhuberant Symphony No. 2 finds complete empathy in Previn's hands, the LSO playing just gloriously.

Both concertos--- balancing Walton's romantic ideals with his pronounced 20th century leanings--- find warmly brilliant advocates in cellist Tortelier, violinist Ida Haendel, conductor Berglund and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.

The overtures, rhythmically good-natured, are excellent additions and rollicking fun under Previn.

[Running time--- CD 1: 78:04 CD 2: 73:24]

Average customer rating:

Walton: Symphonies 1 & 2

Manufacturer: Capitol
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

Modern & 20th Century | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

Average customer rating:

Great Music, Great Sound, Great Price

Symphonies 1 & 2
Walton , Mackerras , Lpo , and Lso
Manufacturer: Class. for Pleas. Us
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

4-for-3 Classical | 4-for-3 Music | Stores | Music

4-for-3 All Music | 4-for-3 Music | Stores | Music
ASIN: B000069DPQ
Release Date: 2002-11-05

Tracks:

Symphony No.1 In B Flat Minor: I. Allegro Assai - London Philharmonic Orchestra
Symphony No.1 In B Flat Minor: II. Presto, Con Malizia - London Philharmonic Orchestra
Symphony No.1 In B Flat Minor: III. Andante Con Malinconia - London Philharmonic Orchestra
Symphony No.1 In B Flat Minor: IV. Maestoso/Brioso Ed Ardentemente/Vivacissimo/Maestoso - London Philharmonic Orchestra
Siesta - Matthias Feile
Symphony No.2: I. Allegro Molto - London Symphony Orchestra
Symphony No.2: II. Lento Assai - London Symphony Orchestra
Symphony No.2: III. Passacaglia: Theme (Risoluto), Variations, Fugato And Coda (Scherzando/Presto) - London Symphony Orchestra

Customer Reviews:

Great Music, Great Sound, Great Price.......2003-12-29

Forget EMI's Double Forte compilation of Walton symphonies, concertos and overtures if you want a satisfying listening experience (and save about $10 at the same time). This disc is for people that love big symphonies and don't want to warm up or cool down, but just have a maximal experience for an extended period period of time. Charles Mackerras conducts these 2 great modern symphonies at full throttle with a brief 'Siesta' in between. 79 minutes of pleasure. The sound is excellent, the orchestras are right on top of Mackerras' high intensity readings. Get it!

Average customer rating:

Outstanding
A good CD, but could be better.
Phenomenal Recording

Organs of Duke Chapel

Manufacturer: Gothic Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Suites | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

Compilations | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Cantatas | Vocal Non-Opera | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000003J9Q
Release Date: 1997-03-18

Tracks:

Praise the Lord with Drums and Cymbals
Sinfonia from Cantata No. 29
Grand Choeur dialogue
Hymn to Joy
Rondeau
Variations on Simple Gifts
Fantasy in G major
Water Music: Allegro Maestoso from the Water Music
Water Music: Minuet and Trio from the Water Music
In dir ist Freude (In thee is gladness)
Meditation on Adoro te devote
Les Cloches de Hinckley
Crown Imperial
Toccata from Symphony No. 5

Customer Reviews:

Outstanding.......2004-09-09

This is an outstanding CD of the two large organs of Duke Chapel. The Aeolian organ is very orchestral while the Flentrop organ is modeled after typical Dutch organs. I especially enjoyed the first three selections. The Grand Choeur is very well performed, and so is the Sinfonia to Cantata 29. However, there are times when it seems that the organ is a bit too powerful. I also enjoyed the performer's arrangement of "In thee is Gladness". I would recommend this CD to anyone who enjoys listening to organ music or anyone who visits the chapel in person but does not get the opportunity to hear the organs in person!

A good CD, but could be better........2002-11-13

I felt that the pieces played on the Flentrop organ were really nice, a testament to that famous Dutch organbuilder, but the pieces played on the Aeolian organ did not live up to my expectations. I think it might have been a bad placement of the microphones or the wrong type. It was an interesting contrast between the two organs but I felt that the Aeolian was not up to the challenge. I also did not like the final piece, the Toccata by Widor. This piece is played frequently and as such many organ lovers here it many, many times. Consequently, I think I have become an expert as to which recordings are good and which are bad. The Flentrop is a large organ but was not constructed with French Romantic music in mind and so really sounds out of place, especially in the pedal department. With out any 32' stops and manual stop action, as well as not being voiced in the French style, it is kind of hard to get the correct effect. A good CD, but could be better.

Phenomenal Recording.......2000-08-21

Gothic's reputation for wonderful recordings of church music, particularly organ music, will only be enhanced by this CD of music by Duke organist David Arcus. Dr. Arcus's excellent improvisational skills shine through in this unique and diverse combination of organ pieces, including a few of his own arrangements.

Dr. Arcus brings forth the best qualities of each instrument as well, and playfully interprets oft-recited pieces to give them newness and to emphasize the genius of their composers.

I have innumerable organ recordings, including most of the best recitalists of the twentieth century, but this is truly the best.

Walton: Symphonies & Concertos
Average customer rating:
Walton: Symphonies & Concertos
Various
Manufacturer: Msi Music
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD
ASIN: B000N0M68Q
Release Date: 2005-02-02

Symphonies 1 & 2
Average customer rating:
Symphonies 1 & 2
Walton , Previn , and Lso
Manufacturer: Capitol
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD
ASIN: B00000DO46
Release Date: 1990-05-07

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