Decca's four-disc Walton Edition offers consistently fine versions of all the composer's most important orchestral works, some of them unsurpassed, in full, brilliant sound. Andrew Litton, the conductor of all but two minor items, is central to the success of the whole. Like his compatriot, André Previn, he's idiomatic, with a natural feeling for the jazzy syncopations at the heart of so much of Walton's music.
This issue brings together the three Litton discs previously issued, with important additions.
The third disc was issued separately, and contains outstanding versions, never previously released, of the Viola Concerto and HindemithVariations plus the two Façade Suites. Where most latterday interpreters of the Viola Concerto have taken a very expansive view of the lyrical first movement, Paul Neubauer comes nearer than anyone else to the original interpreters on disc, Frederick Riddle and William Primrose.
With Neubauer – his tone firm and precise, clean rather than fruity – the result is more persuasive than other modern versions, with no suspicion of expressive self-indulgence. The brisker passages are taken faster than is now usual; the impact is tauter and stronger without losing romantic warmth. He relaxes seductively for the hauntingly beautiful epilogue, using the widest dynamic range. Litton encourages wide contrasts in the orchestra, the big tuttis bringing an element of wildness in the brassy syncopations, the ensemble kept crisp and incisive. The Hindemith Variations also brings a taut and purposeful performance with contrasts in both dynamic and speed heightened to extremes.
Façade is predictably fun, though there's some danger of the warm acoustic softening some of the sharpness of these witty parodies.
Two of the other discs remain the same as with their original release, with Tasmin Little's heartfelt reading of the Violin Concerto coupled with Litton's outstanding account of the Second Symphony, the finest digital version yet, as well as Scapino, while Robert Cohen's thoughtful reading of the Cello Concerto is coupled with the richly recorded First Symphony.
Litton's powerful account of Belshazzar'sFeast with Bryn Terfel brings fresh, cleanly focused choral sound in an atmospheric acoustic that clearly lets you appreciate the terracing between the different groupings of voices. That aptly comes with the coronation music – and the Henry V Suite, with David Hill, chorus-master in Belshazzar, ably standing in for Litton in the Coronation Te Deum and Orband Sceptre.