DCD34328-CD

William Walton: Complete Songbook

Limited Edition: 500 CDs available worldwide

‘These Walton songs are really terrific,’ wrote the great accompanist Gerald Moore; ‘everything WW does is impressive – why the devil doesn’t he write more songs?’

From early experiments, via Edith Sitwell settings that build on the success of Façade, to music for the silver screen and two well-loved cycles heard here in their original intimate versions with piano and guitar, the complete collection fits on a single album.

But what an album! Four decades after Walton’s death, three imaginative young artists bring fresh voices to the feast, revelling with infectious enjoyment in the composer’s endlessly beguiling inventiveness and sparkling wit.

'Young soprano Siân Dicker is partnered by pianist Krystal Tunnicliffe and (in the cycle, originally written for Peter Pears and Julian Bream) guitarist Saki Kato. Recorded in St Mary’s Church, Haddington, they are captured in well-focused sound with an ideal balance and a nice bloom to the sound. Dicker’s voice is comfortable over a wide range, with a notably rich middle register, and she’s alive to the often humorous and sometimes mischievous texts as set by Walton, always keenly projected, but is also capable of tender warmth in the more sensitive numbers ...‘Daphne’ is trance-like, ‘Through gilded trellises’ hauntingly unsettling, and there’s a real jazzy swing to ‘Old Sir Faulk’, ensuring that this compelling disc ends in similar gleeful high spirits to those with which it began. Walton fans owe a huge debt of gratitude to Delphian, Siân Dicker and her engaging colleagues for this welcome addition to the catalogue'
 
 

"The four Swinburne settings have a sincerity sand seriousness a long way from the sophisticated wit of Façade. “The Winds” is the most striking of these student essays, with a turbulent piano part and dramatic vocal, in which Dicker really lets fly ... Anon in love is played here with relaxed humour by Saki Kato. “Fain would I change that note” has a sensual vocal line that soars and dips, “My love in her attire” pits an athletic vocal line against a darting guitar, and the finale “To couple is a custom” is saucy and wry, and Walton at his best ... Dicker and Krystal Tunnicliffe turn on a sixpence to capture the satirical opposition of the outgoing bonhomie of city life versus the boredom of being in the country"


read the full review here

Release Date: 25 October 2024
Catalogue No: DCD34328
Total playing time: 53:42

Recorded on 5-7 January 2024 in St Mary’s Parish Church, Haddington
Producer/Engineer: Paul Baxter
24-bit digital editing: Jack Davis
24-bit digital mastering: Paul Baxter

Piano: Steinway model D, 2016, serial no. 600443
Piano technician: Norman Motion

Design: John Christ
Booklet editor: Henry Howard
Cover image: William Coates-Gibson / Firefly
Session photography: William Coates-Gibson / foxbrush.co.uk

Delphian Records Ltd – Edinburgh – UK www.delphianrecords.com

 

 

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