Eighty-three minutes of vintage Walton. Can’t be bad. And it isn’t. Nor is it great, at least as far as the First Symphony is concerned. Total masterpiece of course, but a rather tensionless, at times tame, account, immediately noticeable from the very beginning and not developing the necessary balls across the first movement that should build to a tremendous timpani stroke, as it does with Slatkin and the LPO (Virgin) – given the recording date my guess is that Russell Jordan is the timpanist – and the malicious second movement is anything but. That said Kazuki Yamada clearly has a feel for this music in terms of tempo, shape and clarity (well-recorded) save that he restricts its emotional wallop. Perhaps it’s no surprise that he then conducts the melancholic slow movement with deep expression, the CBSO totally involved to very moving effect, although the Finale doesn’t take-off as it should. For me, Sargent, Slatkin and Brabbins hold the unlocking key to this great work, and I haven’t forgotten Mackerras (produced, like the Slatkin and the Brabbins, and this DG, by Andrew Keener). Not forgotten either is Previn’s first recording (RCA), although, lest I be ostracized, good as it is I do find it a little overrated.

However, the Second Symphony is terrific (the work undervalued at the time of the 1960 premiere, Liverpool Phil/John Pritchard), Yamada sculpting a scintillating and – slow movement – darkly eloquent (if slightly worried about the horn, 6:08/09) performance, nearly a match for Szell (and Previn, EMI, and I wish Slatkin had recorded it when he included it in a Philharmonia concert, with a first movement of stunning energy and power; still possible of course). Orb and Sceptre (Walton’s second Coronation March, the one for Queen Elizabeth II, goes with a swing, the Elgarian Trio stirring, high trumpets well-in-the-picture during the reprise, if not the trill. DG 486 8227.

Orb and Sceptre, LSO/Previn – with trill, at 6:41…

https://www.classicalsource.com/cd/william-waltons-two-symphonies-bbc-scottish-symphony-orchestra-martyn-brabbins-hyperion-double-review

Two BBC programmes to mark Sir William Walton’s 75th-birthday (March 29, 1977). Includes Previn conducting a then-new LSO performance of Symphony No.1. Plus interviews and rehearsals.