Charlie Lovell-Jones is normally found leading the Sinfonia of London; standing in front of it he’s a fine ambassador for Walton’s Violin Concerto, written for Heifetz. On his own terms, Lovell-Jones possesses a slightly wiry and acerbic tone, not unattractive, if lacking the glow this music may be thought to demand. He does though have the virtuosity needed as well as the gift of the languorous phrase although a little more rapture during the second movement, itself showily speedy to disadvantage, would have been welcome. Overall, it seems that the soloist and John Wilson (detailed/supportive) have consciously set out to make this work hang together as much as possible and keep its sentiment at bay, successfully achieved, if allowing versions such as Kennedy/Previn and Haendel/Berglund to remain preferable to the new one, while Heifetz (two recordings) is Heifetz, and I have a soft spot for Menuhin with the composer conducting, as he does for Heifetz’s second.
Portsmouth Point is somewhat rushed and rowdy (Previn/LSO and Slatkin/LPO both have a greater percentage of, well, point, and better tambourines indeed) leaving Christopher Palmer’s symphonic arrangement of music from Walton’s opera Troilus and Cressida, which here for the most part is full of atmosphere, imagery, drama and storytelling, vividly and sensitively brought off by Wilson and his crack troupe, yet the should-be-stirring passage in the final section (track four, 2’52”-3’31”) is rather staid, unlike Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla and the CBSO.
No complaints about Ralph Couzens’s excellent recorded sound, captured in a sympathetic acoustic, Brian Pidgeon’s high-end production, or Chandos’s comprehensive presentation – on CHSA 5360 [SACD].
https://www.chandos.net/products/reviews/CHSA_5360