威廉·沃尔顿
作曲
William Walton began his career at the age of just 20 as an enfant terrible, with the bizarre performances of his “entertainment” Façade, based on texts by the scandalous poet Edith Sitwell. It did not damage his reputation, and he soon established himself firmly in British musical life with his moderately modern musical language. In addition to his First Symphony, his Viola Concerto in particular remains very popular to this day. The soloist at the London premiere in October 1929 was none other than Paul Hindemith, who was a close friend of Walton’s.
William Turner Walton, born in north-west England in 1902, began composing songs, choruses and organ works at the age of 12. He left Oxford University, where he studied from 1918 to 1920, without completing his degree – but with a thorough self-taught knowledge of the musical craft. At Oxford, Walton met the siblings Osbert and Sacheverell Sitwell, with whose sister Edith he created his first successful piece, Façade, for narrator and chamber ensemble. The composer, who enjoyed the support of Ferruccio Busoni and Ernest Ansermet, had his first international success with the oratorio Belshazzar’s Feast, which was performed at the festival of the International Society for Contemporary Music (IGNM) in Amsterdam in 1933. Walton then wrote his First Symphony, which was premiered by the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Hamilton Harty at London’s Queen’s Hall in November 1935. The work was recorded on vinyl just five weeks later. In 1934, Walton began writing several film scores – a task that temporarily became the most important part of his work during the Second World War due to his government service as a composer for national film production. After the war, Walton lived with his new wife Susana Gil Passo on the island of Ischia, although concert tours and recording projects took him back to England, as well as to Australia, New Zealand and the USSR. Walton received numerous awards and honours and was knighted in 1951. He died on Ischia on 8 March 1983.
