William Walton; Constant Lambert - Symphony No. 2; The Rio Grande (André Previn)

Information

Composer: William Walton; Constant Lambert

• Walton - Symphony No. 2
• Walton - Portsmouth Point
• Walton - Scapino, a Comedy Overture
• Lambert - The Rio Grande

Cristina Ortiz, piano

Jean Temperley, mezzo-soprano

London Madrigal Singers

London Symphony Orchestra

André Previn, conductor

Date: 1974 / 2021

Label: Warner Classics

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Review

Previn’s accounts of the two overtures and the Second Symphony originally appeared together on LP in 1974, coupled with Constant Lambert’s Rio Grande. These recordings of the overtures are the same ones as those already available on CD, coupled with Previn’s performance of Belshazzar’s Feast. These boisterous performances still sound well. The recording of the Second Symphony has been deleted for years (it was once available on CD coupled with Malcolm Sargent’s worthy but now surpassed recording of the First Symphony) and was only the second version of the work to be released, its predecessor being George Szell’s very fine LP for CBS, issued in 1962. Previn’s account has not been equalled since. His performance captures the volatile nature of this rewarding score, which can erupt into violence then return to sensitive textures within a few seconds. Previn does not shy away from the underlying fierceness of much of the music: this is a dynamic performance with a welcome abrasive edge to the sonority where required. Nevertheless, the most memorable achievement of this recording is the beauty of sound which Previn creates with Walton’s scoring: the addition of two harps, piano, celeste, glockenspiel, xylophone and vibraphone to orchestral resources which (even without these instruments) are already larger than the First Symphony, is demonstrated here to be far more than an experiment in novel timbre, because Previn blends their tonal colours into the texture with such refinement that even the most sceptical listener will be persuaded that the essential substance of the music demands their inclusion. Previn and the LSO present here a strong case for regarding the central lento assai as one of the greatest slow movements in British music.

— Raymond Clarke

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William Walton (29 March 1902 – 8 March 1983) was an English composer. During a sixty-year career, he wrote music in several classical genres and styles, from film scores to opera. His best-known works include Façade, the cantata Belshazzar's Feast, the Viola Concerto, the First Symphony, and the British coronation marches Crown Imperial and Orb and Sceptre. Walton was a slow worker, painstakingly perfectionist, and his complete body of work 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.

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Constant Lambert (23 August 1905 – 21 August 1951) was an English composer, conductor and critic. As the founding music director of the Royal Ballet, he helped establishing English ballet as a major artistic movement. Although his extensive conducting work limited his compositional output, Lambert achieved lasting recognition with the cantata The Rio Grande (1927), the jazz-influenced Piano Concerto (1931), the ballet Horoscope (1937), and the choral masque Summer's Last Will and Testament (1936). Beyond composition, he wrote the influential book Music Ho! (1934), an illuminating study of 20th-century music.

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André Previn (April 6, 1929 – February 28, 2019) was a German-American pianist, composer, and conductor. Born in Berlin to a Jewish family, Previn moved to New York with his family in 1938. He started arranging and composing for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1946, and went on to be involved in over 50 films, winning four Academy Awards. Previn was also a gifted jazz-piano interpreter and arranger of songs, winning the respect of prominent jazz artists. In classical music, he also performed as a pianist but gained his fame as a conductor. Previn's discography contains hundreds of recordings in film, jazz and classical music.

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