Of course, there’s much more to it, but no space to say, so for now just bask in the festive syncopations, the “folksy fiddling” and, most of all, the languorous luxuriance of Walton’s “bel canto” violin. Walton! As the throw-back to the First Symphony seems a storm-threat (or a lovers’ tiff?), so those flurries seem irksome midges, all part of a musical picture exquisitely reflecting romance on the Tyrrhenian Sea’s idyllic shores. Numerous gratuitous virtuoso flurries possibly explain Walton’s wry comment on recovering the lost score, “A pity it was ever found, really.” Speak for yourself, Mr. Daunted by the honour, Walton struggled more than usual, ultimately enlisting Heifetz to help “jazz up” the fruits of his limited technical knowledge. Born out of love - for Italy and Alice Wimbourne - it was “fathered” by Heifetz. The Resonance of a Small Voice: William Walton and the Violin Concerto in England between 19. Maybe more than in any other work, these factors fuse in the Violin Concerto. The spur? Basically, the women in his life, but something else: accompanying the Sitwells on their Italian jaunts, he quickly became captivated. Yet, as Walton matured, real creative fires ignited - the Viola Concerto (1929), Belshazzar’s Feast (1931), and the lacerating First Symphony (1931-5). For all its effrontery, Façade was a confection. Living in London, mingling with the cream of artistic society, Walton had everything on a plate.
When Walton, having failed his exams, bemoaned his fate, the Sitwell siblings’ solution was to “adopt” him, organising an income so that their “pet genius” could compose in comfort. His nascent Piano Quartet entranced the undergraduate Sacheverell Sitwell. or when my voice breaks I’ll be sent home”. However, fear provoked him into composing, specifically anthems “to make myself interesting. 1943)Ī choirmaster’s son, Walton became a chorister at Christ Church Cathedral School, Oxford (1912), and seemed set fair for a conventional choral career.