Product description

EMI 556592; EMI ITALIANA - Italia; Classica contemporanea Orchestrale

Amazon.com

EMI has very wisely re-coupled Rattle's good, but not great, recording of Walton's First Symphony to a spectacular performance of Belshazzar's Feast, the composer's most popular work. The result is really more than the sum of its parts--an excellent introduction to the composer and his work. In fact, even the performance of the First Symphony somehow gains in stature from being paired with the oratorio, with Rattle's essentially lyrical conception of the piece nicely complementing the no-holds-barred choral and orchestra hysteria of the cantata. In the later work, he captures more detail in the instrumental parts than just about any other conductor, but never at the expense of the big picture, and his rhythmic discipline is second to none. The recorded sound also has tremendous amplitude and immediacy. A great recording. --David Hurwitz