Walton: Viola Concerto, Partita for Orchestra & Sonata for String Orchestra - Chandos: CHSA5210 - SACD or download

Ehnes, long established as one of the world’s leading violinists, doesn’t offer the same hefty, almost cello-like weight of tone on the viola as some of his specialist colleagues. Then again,... — BBC Music Magazine, July 2018, More…

Release Date: 6th Apr 2018
Catalogue No: CHSA5210
Label: Chandos
Length: 65 minutes

Gramophone Magazine

June 2018

Editor's Choice
Record Review

28th April 2018

Recording of the Week

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Walton: Viola Concerto (1961 Version)

23:38

$6.30

$7.55

$11.05

BBC Symphony Orchestra
Edward Gardner
James Ehnes (viola)
Recorded: 17 and 18 June 2017
Recording Venue: Watford Colosseum, United Kingdom

I. Andante comodo

7:50

$2.10

$2.50

$3.70

II. Vivo, con molto preciso

4:04

$1.05

$1.25

$1.85

III. Allegro moderato

11:44

$3.15

$3.80

$5.50

Walton: Sonata for String Orchestra

26:16

$6.30

$7.50

$11.10

BBC Symphony Orchestra
Edward Gardner
Recorded: 17 and 18 June 2017
Recording Venue: Watford Colosseum, United Kingdom

I. Allegro

8:34

$2.10

$2.50

$3.70

II. Presto

4:11

$1.05

$1.25

$1.85

III. Lento

8:59

$2.10

$2.50

$3.70

IV. Allegro molto

4:32

$1.05

$1.25

$1.85

Walton: Partita for Orchestra

15:43

$3.15

$3.75

$5.55

BBC Symphony Orchestra
Edward Gardner
Recorded: 17 and 18 June 2017
Recording Venue: Watford Colosseum, United Kingdom

I. Toccata

4:33

$1.05

$1.25

$1.85

II. Pastorale siciliana

6:11

$1.05

$1.25

$1.85

III. Giga burlesca

4:59

$1.05

$1.25

$1.85

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Read our exclusive interview with Edward Gardner about the recording here.

In this third volume of Edward Gardner’s Walton series with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, James Ehnes leaves his violin to tackle the taxing soloist role in the Viola Concerto. In a recent Strad interview, Ehnes confesses: ‘This is a piece I have loved since I was a teenager, so it is wonderful that the opportunity has come my way to record it... With Walton’s Viola Concerto, none of the writing is impossible but a lot of it is close. And in a way that is exactly where you want it to be: on the edge of technical limitations. There’s a tremendous amount of excitement in that.’ This album in surround sound also features two much later works: the 1957 Partita for Orchestra and the Sonata for String Orchestra, adapted in 1971 from the String Quartet in A minor of 1945 – 47. There is a striking contrast between the uncomfortable modernism of the up-and-coming young composer’s Viola Concerto and the relaxed brilliance of the mature Partita. But the Sonata shows Walton late in his life re-engaging as an arranger with his earlier manner, and so with the characteristic vein of restless unease that runs through most of his output.

Reviews

July 2018

Ehnes, long established as one of the world’s leading violinists, doesn’t offer the same hefty, almost cello-like weight of tone on the viola as some of his specialist colleagues. Then again, the solo part in Walton’s Concerto doesn’t at all presuppose this quality…Gardner and the BBC Symphony Orchestra contribute a brilliant and ultra-accurate accompaniment.

June 2018

Ehnes and Gardner take us back to pre-Menuhin tempos, only a fraction slower than William Primrose’s pioneering 1946 recording. There’s a grand sweep to the performance which is wholly engaging in its refusal to wallow. Ehnes’s burnished viola tone is noble and warm...Gardner conducts a lithe performance of the Sonata for string orchestra…and a suitably boisterous Partita to fill out the disc.

15th April 2018

[Ehnes] eloquently masters the bittersweet wistfulness of the outer movements and the dazzling pyrotechnics we hear here...Gardner’s BBC Symphony Orchestra forces play [the Partita] as the showpiece it is, revelling in its unfashionable Italianate lyricism and witty high jinks.

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