2012 William Walton The Collector's Edition 12 CD Box Set EMI Modern Classical Music
Sir William Turner Walton (1902 – 1983) was an English composer who wrote music in several classical genres and styles, from film scores to opera spanning a sixty-year career. His best-known works include Facade, the cantata Belshazzar's Feast, the Viola Concerto, the First Symphony, and the British coronation anthems Crown Imperial and Orb and Sceptre. This new sealed 12 CD Box Set features many of these better known compositions.
His earliest work of note was a collaboration with Edith Sitwell, Facade, which at first brought him notoriety as a modernist, but later became a popular ballet score. In middle age, Walton left Britain and set up home with his young wife Susana on the Italian island of Ischia. By this time, he had ceased to be regarded as a modernist, and some of his compositions of the 1950s were criticised as old-fashioned. His only full-length opera, Troilus and Cressida made little impact in opera houses. In his last years, his works came back into critical fashion; his later compositions, dismissed critics at the time of their premieres, were revalued and regarded alongside his earlier works. Walton was a perfectionist and a slow worker; his complete body of work across his long career is not large. His most popular compositions continue to be frequently performed in the 21st century, and by 2010 almost all his works had been released on CD.
Release Date: 08/14/2012
Label: EMI Classics
Catalog #: 40858
Composer: Sir William Walton
Performer: Ida Haendel, Nigel Kennedy, Lynn Harrell, David Bell, etc.
Conductor: Bernard Haitink, Andre Previn, Paavo Berglund, Richard Hickox, etc. Orchestra/Ensemble: Philharmonia Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, etc.
Number of Discs: 12
Recorded in: Stereo
Length: 14 Hours 16 Mins.
Tracklist:
Disk: 1 Symphonies 1 & 2
1. Symphony No. 1 in B flat minor 51.00
2. Symphony No. 2 27.29
Disk: 2
1. Violin Concerto 31.24
2. Viola Concerto 25.51
3. Improvisation on an Impromptu of Benjamin Britten 16.09
Disk: 3
1. Overture: Portsmouth Point 5.32
2. Comedy Overture: Scapino 8.40
3. Siesta 6.06
4. Sonata for Strings (arrangement of String Quartet) 26.53
5. Cello Concerto 29.43
Disk: 4
1. Coronation March (1937): Crown Imperial 8.31
2. Coronation March (1953): Orb and Sceptre 6.47
3. Johannesburg Festival Overture 7.12
4. Capriccio burlesco 7.17
5. 'Spitfire' Prelude and Fugue 7.19
6. The Battle of Britain - Suite (arr. Colin Matthews) 12.26
7. Variations on a Theme by Hindemith 23.24
Disk: 5 Music for Shakespeare Films
1. Henry V - Suite (arr. Sir Malcolm Sargent) 13.20
2. Troilus and Cressida - Act II: Interlude 4.39
3. As You Like It - Suite (arr. Carl Davis) 14.37
4. A History of the English Speaking Peoples - March 4.45
5. Hamlet - Funeral March (arr. Muir Mathieson) 4.51
6. Richard III - Prelude (arr. Muir Mathieson) 7.42
7. Richard III - A Shakespeare Suite (arr. Muir Mathieson) 12.01
Disk: 6 Facade
1. Facade (An entertainment with poems by Edith Sitwell) 37.05
2. Facade - Two Suites for Orchestra 22.14
3. The Wise Virgins Ballet Suite (J.S. Bach orch. Walton) 19.30
Disk: 7
1. Henry V - Suite (arr Mathieson) 15.05
2. Partita for Orchestra 15.48
3. Sinfonia Concertante for orchestra with piano obbligato 17.32
4. String Quartet in A minor 26.15
Disk: 8
1. Piano Quartet 28.51
2. Violin Sonata 25.59
3. Five Bagatelles for guitar 13.59
Disk: 9
1. Belshazzar's Feast 34.19
2. In Honour of the City of London (Dunbar) 16.24
3. Coronation Te Deum 9.19
4. Gloria 18.47
Disk: 10 Troilus and Cressida
1. Act I 41.25
2. Act II - Scene 1 23.46
3. Scene 2 (Opening) 3.09
Disk: 11 Troilus and Cressida
1. Act II - Scene 2 (Conclusion) 15.04
2. Act III 43.48
Disk: 12
1. The Bear 48.44
2. Set me as a seal upon thine heart 3.43
3. What Cheer? 1.26
4. Where does the uttered music go? 7.25
5. A Queen's Fanfare 0.50