Composer of the Week: Walton

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Composer of the Week

Music: Classical

Composer of the Week - Brand

An informative guide to composers' lives and their music.

An informative and accessible guide to composers' lives and their music.

Composer of the Week: William Walton (1902-1983): Nonsense through megaphones

Nonsense through megaphones

William Walton (1902-1983)

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, William Walton (1902-1983), Nonsense through megaphones

Walton falls in with a rather alternative crowd: the Sitwell siblings.

William Walton composed music for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II and King George VI, pieces of pomp and circumstance which we’ll likely here again during this weekend’s coronation of King Charles III. But Walton grew up far from Buckingham Palace and the world of the Windsors, in the northern working-class town of Oldham, seemingly destined to work at the cotton mill. Even when he escaped to Oxford and then London, making high-society friends such as the Sitwells, his early music was intense and avant-garde - not at all suitable for a royal affair. So how did Walton become the royal composer of choice? This week, we’ll find out. 

In today’s programme, we hear how Walton fell in with the notoriously avant-garde Sitwell siblings and made his name in high society as a rather ‘alternative’ composer…

Façade: 2. En famille
English Opera Group Ensemble
Edith Sitwell, narrator
Anthony Collins, conductor

Portsmouth Point
London Philharmonic Orchestra
William Walton, conductor

Siesta 
London Philharmonic Orchestra
William Walton, conductor

Sinfonia Concertante: I. Maestoso - Allegro spiritoso, II. Andante comodo 
London Symphony Orchestra
William Walton, conductor

Façade: 5. Through Gilded Trellises, 7. Lullaby for Jumbo, 13. Country Dance
English Opera Group Ensemble
Edith Sitwell, narrator
Anthony Collins, conductor

Façade: 16. Valse, 17. Jodelling Song, 18. Scotch Rhapsody, 20. Fox-Trot "Old Sir Faulk"
English Opera Group Ensemble
Edith Sitwell, narrator
Anthony Collins, conductor

Composer of the Week: William Walton (1902-1983)

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

How did a boy from Oldham become the royals' favourite composer? Donald Macleod finds out.

How did William Walton, a working-class boy from Oldham, become the royals' favourite composer? Donald Macleod surveys his life and music to find out.

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William Walton (1902-1983)

Nonsense through megaphones

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