SIMON RATTLE AND THE CBSO PLAY WALTON
I returned this evening to my long-neglected CD of Simon Rattle conducting Walton with the CBSO, recorded nearly 30 years ago. This performance of the First Symphony, in my not so humble opinion the greatest British symphony (pistols at dawn, anyone?) is so powerful, so intense, that one cannot listen to it too often. No wonder that for once Radio 3's "Building a Library" got things right, when the person comparing all available recordings chose this one, saying the players performed as though their lives depended upon it.
At the time of this recording Rattle was approaching the end of his tenure as the CBSO's Principal Conductor, a post he had held since 1980, and during much of which period I was privileged to be Chief Music Critic of the Birmingham Post, witnessing the amazing chemistry which was building between Rattle and his players. I wonder if this sense of approaching valediction informed this hell-for-leather performance?
The coupling is Belshazzar's Feast, with Thomas Hampson as soloist, the CBSO Symphony Chorus, and the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus. This was recorded live at Symphony Hall, for a concert celebrating the centenary of His Master's Voice, now EMI, memorable for the chattery behaviour of the German EMI contingent in the audience, Nigel Kennedy (soloist in the Elgar Violin Concerto) playing his encore first, keeping Sir Simon and the orchestra waiting, and the organ ciphering on the very last chord of the first (this was before Symphony Hall acquired its real, magnificent organ).
In acknowledging the excellence of this recording I also pay tribute to the admirable Walton performances conducted by Rattle's predecessor, the still shamefully undervalued Louis Fremaux, who did so much to build the CBSO into a world-class recording orchestra.
Christopher Morley