This is not the world-beating
version of Belshazzar I had hoped
although it has sterling qualities which
make it enjoyable on its own terms.
The competition is
withering for Belshazzar even
if much of it dates back to ‘antiquity’
- OK the 1970s and 1980s. Good points
for the Naxos version include an epic
scale to the massed choral sound. Of
course Leeds and Huddersfield have long
and exalted singing traditions and those
traditions are sustained here in the
fulsomely glowing tone and alto-baritonal
attack. There is a lustrous glow around
the singing billowing up into the vaulted
spaces of Leeds Town Hall.
The most exciting singing
comes in tr. 3, Babylon was a great
city, with its monumental and gorgeously
dressed paeans and dizzying terraces
of sound. Walton struggled, not completely
successfully, with the problem of topping
the praising of the pagan gods and saving
something for the exultation of the
triumphant Hebrews. Let's not worry
too much about that because in this
area everyone is at full stretch and
the engineers capture a great deal of
detail amid the glorious mêlée.
The iron anvil strokes clang out resolutely
- all red glowing metal and machismo.
The Northern ‘bloodline’ continues in
the vivacity, blast and sheer 'grunt'
of the ENP's augmented brass which the
balance, rather courageously, favours.
The final 'praise ye' in tr. 4 (4.47)
raises a real frisson. The attack of
the shouted 'slain' has unanimity and
impact as does the abandon of the final
'Then sing aloud to God'. This also,
for the first time, brought out for
me the fifing accompanimental woodwind
figures not previously noticed in other
recordings.
Christopher Purves
is as clear as a bell but I missed the
attack and grit of David Wilson-Johnson
(Hickox) and John Shirley-Quirk (Previn).
Make no mistake this
is a good version of Belshazzar but
it does not rate a ‘Hall of Fame’ recommendation.
It lacks the outright convulsive immediacy
and eager, sharply etched definition
of the Previn, the Willcocks and the
Hickox versions; especially the Previn
and the Willcocks. My surprise alternative
recommendation is the not unblemished
Ormandy
on Sony. It is long in the tooth
now but is still taut and hungry even
beside the composer’s various version;
now if only Ormandy had had a more weightily-toned
choir and less dated state-of-the-art
engineering he might have swept the
board.
The ‘fillers’ only
take the disc to 48.11 which, even in
super-bargain terms, seems a mite stingy.
Such a pity that Naxos had not added
the Gloria and the Te Deum.
In any event the two marches are done
with crackling style ... and that golden
blare of the French horns in Crown
Imperial at 1.40 is ‘wow quotient’
material. The recording still fails
to report as much detail and achieve
the delicious transparency and awe-inspiring
bass response of EMI
Classics’ recording of Frémaux
in the two marches with the City of
Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. It is
still the Frémaux that I would
recommend (and with him you get similarly
wonderful versions of the Te Deum
and Gloria into the bargain);
well nigh perfect I would have said.
Such a pity that Walton
never completed (or started) the third
British coronation march. Wasn’t it
to have been called ‘Bed Majesticall’
(to complete the Shakespeare Henry V,
Act IV sc. 1 triptych) reserved for
King Charles III or is that just too
fanciful? On the other hand perhaps
OUP have it under the strictest lock
and key only to release it at the time
of the next Coronation ... if ever and
whenever that may be. If your taste
for such marches remains unappeased
then I recommend you try Howard Ferguson's
Overture for an Occasion and
better yet the wonderful yet still neglected
overture Mancunians by Britain's
forgotten master symphonist, Arthur
Butterworth.
The sung words are
printed in full by Naxos and there are
very good notes by Jeremy Backhouse.
The ENPO are an exciting
orchestra. I well remember attending
during 1999 a concert in Oldham (Walton’s
birthplace) in which they most imposingly
and excitingly performed the Symphony
No. 1. Most unusually this was partnered
with a series of tableaux from Troilus
and Cressida.
These are, not surprisingly,
dashing and eminently enjoyable performances.
If not the last word they are certainly
virtuosic interpretations and brilliant
recordings with, in the case of Belshazzar,
the Northern British choral and
brass traditions standing resplendent.
Rob Barnett
Huddersfield Choral Society; Leeds Philharmonic
Chorus; Laudibus 