Walton orchestrated some of Façade into two orchestral suites, then Portsmouth Point, the viola concerto and Belshazzar’s Feast before he embarked on the symphony. I think Belshazzar was more challenging than the symphony!
Now online: "I`m a Creative Animal" our documentary about Barbara Hannigan www.srf.ch/player/tv/sternstunde-musik/video/im-a-creative-animal---barbara-hannigan?id=5f7e2510-2f36-46b0-8bfa-399920cd052a
Ahah Sir Simon is following Glenn Gould's steps, when Gould sang Walton's Scottish Rhapsody with contralto Patricia Rideout. Gould looked even more funny.Type Glenn Gould, Scottish Rhapsody and you'll see for yourself.
As much as I like Barbara Hannigan, she is completely out-gunned by Dame Edith Sitwell on the Decca CD, with Sir Peter Pears and Anthony Collins conducting. Sorry, Barbara, but this is way OTT.
I agree that the old 1954 recording sets the bar for others, but I would love to also have the 1929 recording, which I’ve never knowingly heard, with Sitwell and Constant Lambert, conducted by Walton. There have been plenty of other reciters, and I’m sure I’ve heard the Cleo Laine and Annie Ross version with John Dankworth conducting. Incidentally, if you hunt about on line you’ll find Cleo Laine’s English language recording of Pierrot Lunaire. Why that’s never been reissued I’ll never know. Other recordings are available! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Façade_discography I heard a story, probably untrue but most good storiesl are, of Edith Sitwell reciting away getting more and more flustered and asking in desperation, ‘But what does it mean?’ The reply, allegedly from Walton was, ‘Well you wrote it, Edith.’
@@Gwailo54 Thanks for the heads-up on the 1929 recording, which I didn't know about. Just found a copy on Amazon [where else?] and put it on my wish list. I've heard about the Walton/Sitwell exchange before, and believe it is authentic. [Si non e vero...] The whole Sitwell family was a Force of Nature, and if you don't know Osbert's 5-volume autobiography, I can confidently recommend it as a 'delicious' read. I'm not sure how I'd react to an English Pierrot because I know the German by heart. I got imprinted early on by Bethany Beardslee's recording, and even saw her in concert, replete with Pierrot mufti. Unforgettable, and I still own most of her LPs, including a exquisite Alban Berg. Her version has only recently been released on CD [shameful delay!] but in the context of a 'complete' edition of Robert Craft recordings from Sony: 44 CDs, 200 bux. I'm hoping for a single release. Thanks again, and best wishes.
@@sterlinglewis5700 my live and costumed Pierrot was the underestimated Mary Thomas with the Fires of London under the direction of Peter Maxwell Davies. She was an incredible performer, especially of Max’s music. I recognise your uncertainty about the English, but Cleo Laine is truly astonishing musician. I am of a vintage that, despite my ambivalence towards Schoenberg, I find it unbelievable that Craft’s massive survey of the music, has never been rereleased before now. The same goes for his boxed Berg. CBS records was not as good as Decca for sound, but they sure were promoting music other labels kept at arm’s length. Their almost complete Stravinsky and Berg, Schoenberg and Webern put other labels to shame (except perhaps Decca and Britten and Phillips and Tippett)d deserves to be celebrated as much as the large catalogue of original cast recordings.
@@Gwailo54 The one LP I have of Mary Thomas is MD's 'Revelation and Fall'. She was one of the few people who could cope with his his music, and make sense of it! This, BTW, is another recording awaiting re-release. I bought [and still have] the old Columbia Rosbaud set of 'Moses und Aron', listened to it once, and shuddered. A particularly hard not to crack, it took me years before I learned to appreciate it. 'Pierrot' turned out to be my entree; now I own the Gielen and Boulez sets. On the basis of your musicianly recommendation, I shall give Cleo a chance... BTW, Jan DeGaetani made a particularly beautiful recording of 'The Book of the Hanging Gardens'. Boulez is labelled, I think unfairly - as too cerebral, but that's just the ticket for his complete, spectacular Webern set. He also did a 'Pierrot' with Christine Schafer, which nearly ;-) meets my high Beardslee standard.
@@sterlinglewis5700I agree Boulez is unfairly labelled as cerebral. Messagesquisse is evidence of that. Dedicated playing by the Ensemble Intercontemporain as a whole and as soloists was a revelation when I attended a series of concerts in Paris, a simple train journey away from London. You can only truly appreciate his work live, but I feel that about every composer. Boulez was at the Barbican with budding conductors and he was taking through the first movement of Webern’s op 6 I think. Cerebral in analysing the score and steering the young conductors through the score, but he got to the heart of what made the piece. I chatted with a student hoping to conduct as a career who was my neighbour in the hall. He was wide eyed with admiration of how Boulez took it apart and made musical sense of it. I’m still struggling with Moses so well done you! It’s been a long time since I listened to Jan de Gaetani in anything. I was lucky enough to hear her in rehearsal in Max’s Stone Litany. He adjusted her part slightly as she was more mezzo and less soprano at the time. A fantastic performer live. I wish I had had the chance to have heard her more often in the UK. Sigh. Very best wishes, Tim