**** (Exceptional Disc)        *** (Good Sound) 

"Edward Gardner’s new recording is the finest modern version that I’ve heard. Like the rest of the programme it’s expertly played and it’s evidently the work of a conductor who is very well versed in Walton’s music. I hope that there will be more instalments in this series and in particular that Gardner has his eye on the Partita, Hindemith Variations and the Viola Concerto Chandos has produced yet another winner of a recording here."

Editor’s Choice – Orchestral

“Edward Gardner directs a superbly perceptive account of Walton’s Second Symphony … A gem of a disc.” 

"... Of Walton’s three string-instrument Concertos, this for cello is underrated, yet is full of melody, colour and inimitable personality. Paul Watkins enjoys its caprice and gives a dazzling account of the mercurial second movement.In the ambitious ‘Tema ed improvvisazioni’ finale, two of the sections being for orchestra alone, Watkins and Gardner typically keep the music flowing while ensuring that the composer’s fancy and eloquent feelings are fully revealed. It’s a splendid performance, as shapely, deft and believed-in as required; and, what’s more, the recorded balance is ideally natural, allowing the so-important orchestra to reach the ear unencumbered, Watkins heard as if from the best concert-hall seat "

Performance *****       Sonics *****

"This is an ideal companion to Edward Gardner’s first Walton disc for Chandos that coupled the composer’s 1st Symphony with his Violin Concerto Walton: Violin Concerto & Symphony No. 1 - Little, Gardner, and it indubitably confirms Gardner as a most sympathetic and authoritative interpreter of Walton’s music.The three works on this immaculately recorded SACD make for a most satisfying programme on disc as indeed they would in the concert hall As on the previous issue, Watford Colosseum was the venue for these Chandos recordings (5.0 channel 24-bit/96kHz) and the sound is spacious, natural and well-balanced. Definitely recommended. "

"The needlepoint orchestral precision required by the Second Symphony is seriously demanding: George Szell’s 1961 recording with the Cleveland Orchestra set a standard in this respect that remains exceptional. Yet Edward Gardner and the BBC Symphony Orchestra match them as near as makes no difference, while also searching out much more of the work’s range of expression, memorably so in the sow movement’s dark-toned emotionalism captured in ultra-clear recorded sound, with just the right amount of surrounding resonance"

 

Performance *****     Recording **** 

"The needlepoint orchestral precision required by the Second Symphony is seriously demanding: George Szell’s 1961 recording with the Cleveland Orchestra set a standard in this respect that remains exceptional. Yet Edward Gardner and the BBC Symphony Orchestra match them as near as makes no difference, while also searching out much more of the work’s range of expression, memorably so in the sow movement’s dark-toned emotionalism captured in ultra-clear recorded sound, with just the right amount of surrounding resonance ..." 

"Lavishly reproduced in surround sound, these accounts of three accounts of three of Walton’s later, compariatively neglected works are as superbly thought out as they are atmospherically recorded ..."

IRR Outstanding

"... There is nothing egotistical in these splendid interpretations, and the result is a set of consistently satisfying performances of the highest musical grasp and understanding. I cannot imagine anything finer than these."