William Walton’s first opera Troilus and Cressida, which premiered in December 1954, was years in the making and delayed by his film score for Olivier’s Hamlet. Written in the wake of Britten’s operatic successes, Walton’s opera swerved the offbeat style of his ‘rival’ and instead sought out older operatic traditions such as classic Chaucerian love stories. Today we hear Christopher Palmer’s symphonic suite arranged from the opera, which draws out its sense of ancient romance and character.
It was said of Walton that he ‘summed up the recent past of English music and augured its future.’ Certainly, younger composers such as his friend Malcolm Arnold admired Walton, but Arnold’s multi-genre output points to his wide field of inspiration. Twenty years Walton’s junior, Arnold is as revered for his light music and film scores as he is heartfelt pieces like his Viola Concerto which we hear today with the outstanding ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ New Generation Artist Timothy Ridout as soloist.