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Symphony No. 2 (Walton)

January 24, 2023

The Symphony No. 2 by William Walton was written between 1957 and 1960, and premiered in September 1960. It received a mixed reception at first: some critics thought Walton's music old-fashioned. Subsequently it has been re-evaluated and praised. The work was first performed by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by John Pritchard and was first recorded by the Cleveland Orchestra, conducted by George Szell. It has subsequently been recorded by conductors from Britain, the US and elsewhere.

Background and first performances

Walton's First Symphony, described by one critic as "an emotional blockbuster",[1] performed in full for the first time in 1935, was one of the works that had marked him out as a leading British composer. By the 1950s his music remained popular with the public but was regarded by many critics as old-fashioned.[2] The commission for a second symphony came in 1956, when the Liverpool Philharmonic Society invited him to compose the work to mark the 750th anniversary, the following year, of the granting of the first charter of incorporation to Liverpool, by King John.[3]

Walton could not begin work on the piece immediately, being occupied with writing his Cello Concerto for Gregor Piatigorsky. A slow worker, Walton missed the deadline for the 1957 anniversary celebrations, and it was not until November of that year that he found "glimmerings of the Symph are beginning to stir slightly".[4] It was not until January 1959 that he completed the first movement; the middle, slow movement was written during January and February 1960 and the finale was completed in July.[2] The city of Liverpool authorities agreed that as the work was finished too late for the anniversary it could be premiered at the Edinburgh Festival, provided the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra played it there. The orchestra's chief conductor, John Pritchard, conducted the premiere at the Usher Hall, Edinburgh on 2 September 1960.[5] The same forces gave the London premiere at a Royal Philharmonic Society concert at the Royal Festival Hall on 23 November 1960.[6]

George Szell and the Concertgebouw Orchestra gave the European continental premiere in Amsterdam on 19 November 1960.[7] Szell conducted the American premiere of the work on 29 December 1960 with the Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Hall, Cleveland, and the New York premiere in February 1961.[8] A few months later Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra made the first recording.[9] Walton dedicated the work to the Clevelanders and later also to the memory of Szell.[9] Leopold Stokowski gave the work another early continental performance in Vienna in May 1961 while on tour with the London Symphony Orchestra.[10]

Structure

The work is in three movements, with a total playing time of just under half an hour.[9] It is scored for a large symphony orchestra comprising three flutes (third doubling piccolo), three oboes (third doubling cor anglais), three clarinets (second doubling clarinet in E-flat, third doubling bass clarinet), three bassoons (third doubling contrabassoon), four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, military drum, snare drum, crash cymbals, suspended cymbal, bass drum, glockenspiel, vibraphone, xylophone, tambourine, bell, piano, celesta, two harps and strings.[9]

First movement

The opening movement, marked allegro molto, begins in 3
4 and derives principally from the leap of a major seventh.[11] The movement is broadly in traditional sonata form, opening with a brisk theme played over a background of strings and celesta in G minor. A bridge passage leads to the second subject, a gentler, grazioso theme, followed by an agitato passage described by the critic Frank Howes as "noisy with glissandi, percussion, brass, and short snaps and stutters on the strings".[12] A development section leads to a recapitulation in which the first subject is compressed to the half the length of its original form and the second subject is extended to be slightly longer than at its first appearance. The coda begins quietly with a horn solo, the opening motif is repeated and the movement ends quietly with what Howes calls an acidulated G minor chord.[13]

Slow movement

The elegiac second movement is in 4
4, marked lento assai. Walton's biographer Neil Tierney describes it as appearing to be "an almost continuous, unbroken web of sumptuous cantilena writing",[14] although it comprises a succession of themes, each growing out of its predecessor.[13] The movement ends in harmonic ambiguity, hovering between B major and B minor.[15]

Finale

The third movement is marked Passacaglia: Theme, Variations, Fugato, and Coda-Scherzando. It opens in 3
4 with a twelve-note tone row, but Howes, Tierney and Michael Kennedy all comment that this Schoenbergian trademark is not employed in an atonal or dodecaphonic style; it is firmly anchored in G minor, and, in Howes's view, more resembles Britten than any of the Second Viennese School.[16] The theme, played by the unison full orchestra, is followed by ten variations, mostly short, of various moods, a fugue based on the main theme, and a final scherzando by way of coda, leading to an emphatic conclusion with repeated chords of G major.[17]

Critical reception

As Walton had predicted, after the mixed reception of the Cello Concerto, the section of the musical press that favoured avant-garde works responded tepidly to the Symphony, finding it "the mixture as before" and "marking time"[18] Peter Heyworth in The Observer praised some aspects of the symphony – "there leaps from almost every bar an intense sense of character, compounded of that odd assortment of jauntiness, irony and an underlying melancholy" – but felt that the work did not represent any real progress from Walton's earlier music.[19]

Howes wrote in The Times after the premiere that the Symphony was something by which to remember an otherwise unmemorable Edinburgh Festival:

[It] bears Walton’s unmistakable fingerprints, the electrical discharge of energy in short and rapid figures, the urgent melodies depending largely on the interval of the seventh, the tight but withal clear contrapuntal web, and the mastery of orchestral effect. Its emotional roots seem to be apprehension (in both senses) of the turbulence of our lives, meditation upon it, and resolute action, which, after the conflict presented by clash of tonalities, succeeds in containing that disquieting turbulence.[20]

Kennedy wrote in 1989 that it was easy to understand how and why the Symphony was underestimated on its first appearance: "Everyone was expecting another emotional blockbuster like the First. Instead they heard a lighter, much shorter, three-movement work that might have been more suitably called a Sinfonietta". Kennedy compares Walton and Elgar as symphonists: both wrote two symphonies, but Elgar's "were built to a similar scale and emotional groundplan. Walton’s are not and to compare one with the other is a pointless exercise".[2] Both Howes and Kennedy write that it takes several hearings to understand the Symphony and to grasp its full meaning and its beauties.[21]

In Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2001), Byron Adams rates the Second Symphony as one of Walton's finest works, more refined than the First Symphony: "it is remarkable for its stylistic integration, developmental ingenuity and orchestral mastery. Although not as urgently passionate as its predecessor, the Second Symphony is notated with greater clarity and displays clearer formal articulation".[22] In a 2002 study Robert Matthew-Walker calls the Second "this magnificent Symphony", remarking on the music's "sense of flight, in the vivid Mediterranean-like chiaroscuro colouring and in the virtuosic scoring for woodwind and high strings [which] seems to defy musical gravity". Matthew-Walker comments that the Symphony achieves the "emotional and spiritual continuity" Walton sought, uniting underlying tonality with "the foreground features of serial thematicism".[23]

Recordings

Source; William Walton Trust.[9]

References

  1. ^ Kennedy, p. 239
  2. ^ a b c Kennedy, p. 211
  3. ^ Kennedy, p. 196
  4. ^ Kennedy, p. 209
  5. ^ Tierney, p. 142
  6. ^ "Walton's New Symphony", The Times, 24 November 1960, p. 8
  7. ^ Charry, p. 191
  8. ^ "In the News", Music Educators Journal 47, no. 1 (1960), p. 10. (subscription required)
  9. ^ a b c d e "Symphony No. 2, for orchestra (1957–60)", William Walton Trust. Retrieved 11 July 2021
  10. ^ Daniel, p. 752
  11. ^ Tierney, p. 185
  12. ^ Howes, pp. 45–46
  13. ^ a b Howes, p. 47
  14. ^ Tierney, pp. 185–186
  15. ^ Tierney, p. 186
  16. ^ Howes, p. 50
  17. ^ Tierney, p. 186; Howes, pp. 49–53; and Kennedy, pp. 213–214
  18. ^ Kennedy, pp. 211 and 214
  19. ^ Kennedy, p. 214
  20. ^ Quoted in Howes, p. 41
  21. ^ Howes, p. 41; and Kennedy, pp. 211–212
  22. ^ Adams, Byron. "Walton, Sir William" Grove Music Online, Oxford University Press, 2001. Retrieved 11 July 2021. (subscription required)
  23. ^ Matthew-Walker Robert. "Aspects of Walton's Second Symphony", Tempo, no. 221 (2002), pp. 29–33 (subscription required)

Sources

  • Charry, Michael (2014). George Szell: A Life of Music. Champaign: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-08003-6.
  • Daniel, Oliver (1982). Stokowski: A Counterpoint of View. New York: Dodd, Mead. ISBN 978-0-396-07936-1.
  • Howes, Frank (1973). The Music of William Walton (second ed.). London: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-315431-5.
  • Kennedy, Michael (1989). Portrait of Walton. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-816705-1.
  • Tierney, Neil (1984). William Walton: His Life and Music. London: Robert Hale. ISBN 978-0-70-901784-4.

January 24, 2023
symphony, walton, symphony, william, walton, written, between, 1957, 1960, premiered, september, 1960, received, mixed, reception, first, some, critics, thought, walton, music, fashioned, subsequently, been, evaluated, praised, work, first, performed, royal, l. The Symphony No 2 by William Walton was written between 1957 and 1960 and premiered in September 1960 It received a mixed reception at first some critics thought Walton s music old fashioned Subsequently it has been re evaluated and praised The work was first performed by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by John Pritchard and was first recorded by the Cleveland Orchestra conducted by George Szell It has subsequently been recorded by conductors from Britain the US and elsewhere Contents 1 Background and first performances 2 Structure 2 1 First movement 2 2 Slow movement 2 3 Finale 3 Critical reception 4 Recordings 5 References 6 SourcesBackground and first performances EditWalton s First Symphony described by one critic as an emotional blockbuster 1 performed in full for the first time in 1935 was one of the works that had marked him out as a leading British composer By the 1950s his music remained popular with the public but was regarded by many critics as old fashioned 2 The commission for a second symphony came in 1956 when the Liverpool Philharmonic Society invited him to compose the work to mark the 750th anniversary the following year of the granting of the first charter of incorporation to Liverpool by King John 3 Walton could not begin work on the piece immediately being occupied with writing his Cello Concerto for Gregor Piatigorsky A slow worker Walton missed the deadline for the 1957 anniversary celebrations and it was not until November of that year that he found glimmerings of the Symph are beginning to stir slightly 4 It was not until January 1959 that he completed the first movement the middle slow movement was written during January and February 1960 and the finale was completed in July 2 The city of Liverpool authorities agreed that as the work was finished too late for the anniversary it could be premiered at the Edinburgh Festival provided the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra played it there The orchestra s chief conductor John Pritchard conducted the premiere at the Usher Hall Edinburgh on 2 September 1960 5 The same forces gave the London premiere at a Royal Philharmonic Society concert at the Royal Festival Hall on 23 November 1960 6 George Szell and the Concertgebouw Orchestra gave the European continental premiere in Amsterdam on 19 November 1960 7 Szell conducted the American premiere of the work on 29 December 1960 with the Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Hall Cleveland and the New York premiere in February 1961 8 A few months later Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra made the first recording 9 Walton dedicated the work to the Clevelanders and later also to the memory of Szell 9 Leopold Stokowski gave the work another early continental performance in Vienna in May 1961 while on tour with the London Symphony Orchestra 10 Structure EditThe work is in three movements with a total playing time of just under half an hour 9 It is scored for a large symphony orchestra comprising three flutes third doubling piccolo three oboes third doubling cor anglais three clarinets second doubling clarinet in E flat third doubling bass clarinet three bassoons third doubling contrabassoon four horns three trumpets three trombones tuba timpani military drum snare drum crash cymbals suspended cymbal bass drum glockenspiel vibraphone xylophone tambourine bell piano celesta two harps and strings 9 First movement Edit The opening movement marked allegro molto begins in 34 and derives principally from the leap of a major seventh 11 The movement is broadly in traditional sonata form opening with a brisk theme played over a background of strings and celesta in G minor A bridge passage leads to the second subject a gentler grazioso theme followed by an agitato passage described by the critic Frank Howes as noisy with glissandi percussion brass and short snaps and stutters on the strings 12 A development section leads to a recapitulation in which the first subject is compressed to the half the length of its original form and the second subject is extended to be slightly longer than at its first appearance The coda begins quietly with a horn solo the opening motif is repeated and the movement ends quietly with what Howes calls an acidulated G minor chord 13 Slow movement Edit The elegiac second movement is in 44 marked lento assai Walton s biographer Neil Tierney describes it as appearing to be an almost continuous unbroken web of sumptuous cantilena writing 14 although it comprises a succession of themes each growing out of its predecessor 13 The movement ends in harmonic ambiguity hovering between B major and B minor 15 Finale Edit The third movement is marked Passacaglia Theme Variations Fugato and Coda Scherzando It opens in 34 with a twelve note tone row but Howes Tierney and Michael Kennedy all comment that this Schoenbergian trademark is not employed in an atonal or dodecaphonic style it is firmly anchored in G minor and in Howes s view more resembles Britten than any of the Second Viennese School 16 The theme played by the unison full orchestra is followed by ten variations mostly short of various moods a fugue based on the main theme and a final scherzando by way of coda leading to an emphatic conclusion with repeated chords of G major 17 Critical reception EditAs Walton had predicted after the mixed reception of the Cello Concerto the section of the musical press that favoured avant garde works responded tepidly to the Symphony finding it the mixture as before and marking time 18 Peter Heyworth in The Observer praised some aspects of the symphony there leaps from almost every bar an intense sense of character compounded of that odd assortment of jauntiness irony and an underlying melancholy but felt that the work did not represent any real progress from Walton s earlier music 19 Howes wrote in The Times after the premiere that the Symphony was something by which to remember an otherwise unmemorable Edinburgh Festival It bears Walton s unmistakable fingerprints the electrical discharge of energy in short and rapid figures the urgent melodies depending largely on the interval of the seventh the tight but withal clear contrapuntal web and the mastery of orchestral effect Its emotional roots seem to be apprehension in both senses of the turbulence of our lives meditation upon it and resolute action which after the conflict presented by clash of tonalities succeeds in containing that disquieting turbulence 20 Kennedy wrote in 1989 that it was easy to understand how and why the Symphony was underestimated on its first appearance Everyone was expecting another emotional blockbuster like the First Instead they heard a lighter much shorter three movement work that might have been more suitably called a Sinfonietta Kennedy compares Walton and Elgar as symphonists both wrote two symphonies but Elgar s were built to a similar scale and emotional groundplan Walton s are not and to compare one with the other is a pointless exercise 2 Both Howes and Kennedy write that it takes several hearings to understand the Symphony and to grasp its full meaning and its beauties 21 In Grove s Dictionary of Music and Musicians 2001 Byron Adams rates the Second Symphony as one of Walton s finest works more refined than the First Symphony it is remarkable for its stylistic integration developmental ingenuity and orchestral mastery Although not as urgently passionate as its predecessor the Second Symphony is notated with greater clarity and displays clearer formal articulation 22 In a 2002 study Robert Matthew Walker calls the Second this magnificent Symphony remarking on the music s sense of flight in the vivid Mediterranean like chiaroscuro colouring and in the virtuosic scoring for woodwind and high strings which seems to defy musical gravity Matthew Walker comments that the Symphony achieves the emotional and spiritual continuity Walton sought uniting underlying tonality with the foreground features of serial thematicism 23 Recordings EditOrchestra Conductor Year TimingCleveland Orchestra George Szell 1962 26 57 London Symphony Orchestra Andre Previn 1973 27 28 London Symphony Orchestra Sir Charles Mackerras 1989 28 23 London Philharmonic Orchestra Bryden Thomson 1989 29 29 Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Vladimir Ashkenazy 1991 27 53 Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra Andrew Litton 1994 28 05 BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra Martyn Brabbins 1995 28 19 English Northern Philharmonia Paul Daniel 1995 27 41 Source William Walton Trust 9 References Edit Kennedy p 239 a b c Kennedy p 211 Kennedy p 196 Kennedy p 209 Tierney p 142 Walton s New Symphony The Times 24 November 1960 p 8 Charry p 191 In the News Music Educators Journal 47 no 1 1960 p 10 subscription required a b c d e Symphony No 2 for orchestra 1957 60 William Walton Trust Retrieved 11 July 2021 Daniel p 752 Tierney p 185 Howes pp 45 46 a b Howes p 47 Tierney pp 185 186 Tierney p 186 Howes p 50 Tierney p 186 Howes pp 49 53 and Kennedy pp 213 214 Kennedy pp 211 and 214 Kennedy p 214 Quoted in Howes p 41 Howes p 41 and Kennedy pp 211 212 Adams Byron Walton Sir William Grove Music Online Oxford University Press 2001 Retrieved 11 July 2021 subscription required Matthew Walker Robert Aspects of Walton s Second Symphony Tempo no 221 2002 pp 29 33 subscription required Sources EditCharry Michael 2014 George Szell A Life of Music Champaign University of Illinois Press ISBN 978 0 252 08003 6 Daniel Oliver 1982 Stokowski A Counterpoint of View New York Dodd Mead ISBN 978 0 396 07936 1 Howes Frank 1973 The Music of William Walton second ed London Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 315431 5 Kennedy Michael 1989 Portrait of Walton Oxford Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 816705 1 Tierney Neil 1984 William Walton His Life and Music London Robert Hale ISBN 978 0 70 901784 4 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Symphony No 2 Walton amp oldid 1083528350, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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