William Walton: Violin Concerto, Symphony 1

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Rating: 5/5 Verdict: "A definitive symphonic venture for the Rolls-Royce of English composers"

William Walton is one of a handful of top-drawer composers who made their mark conducting the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and memories of his 1964 tour can be relived on a double CD from the American Bridge label.

The twin peaks of that visit were the 1939 Violin Concerto, with soloist Berl Senofsky and the 1935 First Symphony.

Walton's own description of himself as a classical composer with a strong feeling for lyricism comes to mind with a new recording of the concerto, featuring American violinist Kurt Nikkanen and the New Haven Symphony Orchestra under William Boughton.

The opening Andante tranquillo rolls out a sonic welcome rug in the style of Korngold's lush underscoring for the Warner Brothers epics of that time.

The allusion is not so farfetched; Walton himself had become involved in writing for the screen in the late 1930s.

Nikkanen is in eloquent form, weaving his line through the sort of sumptuous textures that had one of Walton's colleagues hail him as a Rolls-Royce of a composer.

The scherzo "alla napolitana" is spry and sprightly, revealing the composer's love of things Italian, a passion that would see him relocating to Italy in his late 40s.

William Boughton, whose name is closely associated with the Nimbus label and its tradition of looking after the English composer, may well have been inspired by the involvement of Yale University's Walton archives, which enabled original manuscripts to be consulted.

The conductor has daunting competition when it comes to the First Symphony, not least of all from the composer himself in that 1964 NZSO recording. And Andre Previn's 1966 recording with the London Symphony Orchestra, chosen for a glowing reassessment in a recent Gramophone magazine, still packs a punch.

While the New Haven Symphony Orchestra might not be the war machine that the LSO was 40 years ago, its players enjoy the challenge of the work's lean, taut textures.

Boughton takes his time, which means the first movement is particularly incisive.

The Andante revels in its beguiling melancholy and the Finale - which actually gave Walton no little trouble - has a cohesion and cumulative power that not all conductors are able to achieve.

- NZ Herald