William Walton:
01. Spitfire Prelude and Fugue [7'41]
02. - 04. Sinfonia concertante (1927 version)* [17'30]
05. - 16. Variations on a Theme by Hindemith [22'45]
17. March for 'A History of the English Speaking Peoples' [4'56]
Peter Donohoe- piano*; English Northern Philharmonia conducted by Paul Daniel
Naxos 8.553869 [recorded May and October 1996; CD issued 1999]
[CD-rip; flacs, booklet, cover and inlay scans. Not my rip but included here to complete the series. Many thanks to the original uploader.]
Recording venue: Leeds Town Hall, West YorkshireRecording engineer: Andrew Groves; Producer: Andrew Walton
Here is the fourth post in this series of recordings of works with orchestra by Walton made by Paul Daniel and the English Northern Philharmonia (the orchestra of Opera North) for Naxos. Just Belshazzar's Feast still to come. This series revealed Paul Daniel as one of Walton's finest interpreters and he is provided with consistently fine recorded sound even though each of the five issues were made with different recording teams.
As with the Second Symphony and Partita, it is difficult to match George Szell's classic recording of the Hindemith Variations with the Cleveland Orchestra but again Daniel and his forces come quite close and have superior sound recording quality. Worryingly, I find myself again in agreement with David Hurwitz on this issue. All four works are given spirited performances and Peter Donohoe excels in the 1927 version of the Sinfonia concertante.