Wigglesworth Conducts Walton - Wagner, Ravel, Walton by Walton, Wagner, Richard, Ravel, Od (2024/2024), Dirigent Mark Wigglesworth, Lighthouse, Poole, United Kingdom

Walton’s First Symphony was a landmark of English composition and represents the peak of his symphonic thinking. Its turbulent emotions and high-voltage energy were the fruit of tempestuous events surrounding Walton at the time. After an eloquent, dramatic first movement, a stinging, malicious Scherzo and a truly melancholic slow movement, the finale is totally different in outlook – an almost Elgarian ceremonial jubilation, as if a cloud has lifted. The Concerto for the Left Hand displays a great deal of resourcefulness and originality on Ravel’s part. Unfolding in a single movement in three sections, dark and powerful, it is so full of illusion and texture that the solo part rarely gives the slightest hint that a mere single hand is involved. The exquisite orchestral scoring leans toward the rich, lower pitches which lends it a rather sombre hue and an apt heroic grandeur. In the overture to his only comic opera, Wagner skilfully combines the main themes associated with the mastersingers and their apprentices.