Walton/Vaughan Williams

COMPOSERS: Walton/Vaughan Williams
LABELS: RCA Classical Navigator
WORKS: Cello Concerto; Symphony No. 7 (Sinfonia antartica)
PERFORMER: Gregor Piatigorsky (cello), Boston SO/Charles Munch; Heather Harper (sop), Ambrosian Singers, LSO/André Previn
CATALOGUE NO: 74321 29248 2 ADD (1957/68)
Previn’s Sixties RCA Vaughan Williams symphony cycle was very impressive and critically well received. His Sinfonia antartica has plenty of atmosphere and excitement and the new CD transfer has real immediacy; ‘Landscape’, with its sudden and dramatic organ entry, now has great impact. Heather Harper and the Ambrosian Singers chillingly convey the pity and human frailty as well as the intense cold of Scott’s last moments. But the real treasure here is Piatigorsky’s classic recording of the intimate and mellow Walton Cello Concerto, with its gentle, long-lined melodies; a performance Walton himself described as absolutely superb. Ian Lace