Orchestra of the Swan celebrates the centenary of Waltons Façade on SOMM

It’s tough to fairly fathom the fuss the surrounded the premiere of Façade in 1922. Partly it was as a result of the Sitwells have been nice self-publicists and cherished to generate a stir, however there have been boos and catcalls on the first public efficiency (within the Aeolian Corridor) and press was typically condemnatory. However inside a decade the music had been become a ballet (by Sir Frederick Ashton) and the piece was turning into one thing of an icon. These first performances had Edith Sitwell reciting (by means of a sort of megaphone invented for Fafner within the 1876 Ring Cycle at Bayreuth) and Walton conducting. In 1930, Leslie Heward carried out the work for the BBC with the reciters being Sitwell and Fixed Lambert. Walton would later say that Lambert was the most effective reciter, intently adopted by Sir Peter Pears.

After all, what the viewers heard in 1922 was quite totally different to Façade immediately. Settings of poems got here and went, and solely regularly did the assemblage construct up. That 1930 efficiency, which was billed as full, included 18 poems. We all know of some Sitwell poems from her Façade assortment that are recorded as being set however which don’t survive. In 1977, Walton would produce Façade Revived and in 1979, Façade II, which included actions not within the definitive model.

The definitive Façade was printed in 1951, so it successfully took 30 years to settle and the ultimate kind, 21 poems in seven teams of three, owes a lot to Fixed Lambert’s suggestion that Walton emulate Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire which has an analogous kind. What I’m unclear of is how a lot Walton (who was nonetheless solely 20 when Façade premiered) knew about Pierrot Lunaire when he was writing the work in 1922, presumably he did.

Right here the reciters are Roderick Williams and Tamsin Dalley. There aren’t any set allocations to the recitations, and quite than taking flip and switch about with every quantity, Williams and Dalley use a scheme created by Bruce O’Neil which turns every quantity into one thing of a dramatic scene, and Williams particularly relishes this by utilizing all kinds of accents. This side of the efficiency could not go well with everybody. Sure, Sitwell’s poems embrace characters and amidst the weird conditions are echoes of her household and upbringing, however the poet regarded the poems as being about sound, they have been experiments with rhythms and sounds, utilizing lengthy and brief syllables, assonance and consonance. This summary high quality is misplaced whenever you deliver out the dramatic factor, however a murals is robust sufficient to take totally different readings.

It needs to be stated that Façade is tough, and I’ve heard numerous dangerous performances, actors can discover getting the rhythms exact quite tough whereas singers typically wrestle with projecting the precise textual content, and a few of the quicker numbers are gorgeous tongue twisters. One of the best stay efficiency I ever heard featured two well-established singers, Cathy Berberian and Robert Tear.

Because the work opens we are able to benefit from the chamber lightness and élan from the gamers. And all through there’s a sense of this being a chamber work for voices and devices, quite than having the devices as accompaniment. The quicker actions do definitely have a brilliance to them, although there may be additionally a way of adhering to the notated rhythms; then once more, if the reciters did not try this, I might most likely be chiding them for sloppiness. This offers you a way of the trickiness of the piece.

Each reciters deliver a way of robust characterisation, making every motion an enticing little drama. There’s typically a steadiness to speeds which allows the performers to deliver out element, filled with color and rhythm, all executed with relish. This method signifies that totally different actions come to consideration, in order that I actually loved ‘Valse’ when it might probably typically disappear into the background.

The companion work is Walton’s music for Sir Lawrence Olivier’s movie, Henry V. Produced in 1944, Walton was not the younger tyro however a mature composer properly capable of create stirring patriotic music alongside the wittier components. A variety of orchestral suites have been produced (with the composer’s sanction), however in 1988 Christopher Palmer created a bigger work, the Henry V: Shakespeare State of affairs which makes use of extra music and hyperlinks the items with a spoken narration taken from the play. A diminished model of this was commissioned from Edward Watson by English Serenata in 1992. That’s what we hear on the disc, with Kevin Whately because the narrator. The unique recording of Plummer’s State of affairs on Chandos lasts a whisker over 60 minutes whereas this recording is 42 minutes. I’m not clear what has been trimmed, and the booklet notes don’t say.

There’s little sense of discount within the efficiency from the orchestra which performs with nice élan. The situation offers us loads of the orchestra however not a lot of Kevin Whately and the result’s maybe quite lower than drama and quite greater than easy incidental music. It has the benefit that we are able to take pleasure in Walton’s music in context. And while you would possibly take into account the easiest way to take heed to this music is by watching the movie, this efficiency brings the orchestra contribution additional to the fore. So, we are able to benefit from the vibrant particulars of Walton’s creativeness, particulars that usually disappear when our eyes and ears are drawn the motion within the movie.

Sir William Walton (1902-1983) – Facade [38:30]
William Walton – Music from Henry V [42:26]

Roderick Williams, Tamsin Dalley (reciters)
Kevin Whately (narrator)
Orchestra of the Swan
Bruce O’Neil (conductor)
Recorded at Stratford Play Home, 11-12 Could 2021
SOMM Recordings SOMMCD 277 [80:56]