This is the second Sinfonia of London album dedicated to William Walton and a perfect example of how conductor John Wilson’s vital, yet penetrating, approach combines with the orchestra’s trademark lustre to fit this composer’s music like a glove. It’s evident from the outset in a rumbustious reading of the Scapino overture that positively snaps, crackles and pops.
Principal cellist Jonathan Aasgaard is the soloist in Walton’s final concerto where the music’s angst-ridden romantic sweep is tinged with introspective melancholy. Translucent orchestral textures allow his generous tone to shine, while a prodigious technique is showcased in an immaculately articulated account of the central Allegro appassionato.
The First Symphony has received some fine recordings over the years, not least André Previn’s blistering 1972 account with the London Symphony Orchestra and Edward Gardner’s in 2014 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Wilson’s performance yields pride of place to no one. His sure-footed pacing brings out the opening movement’s brooding tension while building its snarling climaxes with an effortless assurance. Orchestral precision, aided by Chandos’s surgically detailed recording, pays dividends throughout. The “con malizia” scherzo bristles with excoriating detail, the slow movement is quietly affecting, and, for once, the hard-won finale with its Technicolor fanfares feels fully earned.
