(Ninth Seascn-10)
Cyril Smith (pianoforte)
The BBC Orchestra
(Secticn B)
Leader, Paul Beard Conducted by Clarence Raybould
(Solo pianoforte, CYRIL SMITH )
William Walton 's Sinfonia Concertante was composed in 1927 and represents his first important symphonic work. By calling it a ' concertante ' Walton has been able to get away from the traditional concerto style ; that is to say that the piano is not exploited as a virtuoso instrument, but rather is it treated as one of the most important members of the orchestra. The music is typical of the composer's style, the 'first and the third movements being highly rhythmical in character and the slow movement full of that expressive lyricism which one finds so often in his works, notably in the Viola Concerto.
The Symphony in E minor, written in 1899, was not actually Sibelius's first symphony, for as early as 1893 he had written a choral symphony, ' Kullervo '. But ' Kullervo ' has never been published and is not reckoned in the list of the composer's symphonic compositions. When Sibelius wrote his E minor
Symphony at thirty-four he had not yet completely found his own way. The Symphony is far less austere, far more easily approachable than his later, more mature works. But though romantic and colourful in a vein that Sibelius has long abandoned, it could have been written by no one but him.