William Walton: Toccata for violin and piano (1923) Part I

Since first hearing William Walton’s flamboyant and unconventional Toccata for violin and piano I have been surprised that it was not more popular. I can understand that the ‘Spitfire’ Prelude and Fugue, the ‘Crown Imperial’ and ‘Orb and Sceptre Marches’ and Façade are always going to gain more traction with concert promoters and record producers, yet there is something about this Toccata that demands our attention.

The early 1920s was a period when Walton was attempting to find his musical voice. Various avenues were explored. There was the free atonality of the present Toccata and the String Quartet. He was inspired by jazz and was an early enthusiast of Duke Ellington. This was evident in certain numbers in Façade. Walton apparently made many arrangements of music for dance bands. This interest never really took hold, and after the failure to complete his Fantasia Concertante for 2 pianos, jazz band and orchestra he put aside his attempt to write symphonic jazz. It was around this time that William Walton met George Gershwin, who was in London to give a performance of his Rhapsody in Blue.  Other attempts at establishing a style have been noted: the hazy impressionism of Siesta, the rhythmic drive of the Overture: Portsmouth Point and the Francophone Sinfonia Concertante (1927) with echoes of musical Paris in the 1920s. On the other hand, all these stylistic mannerisms would continue re-appear in his music until the end of his career.

As Gary D. Cannon has written (From Oldham to Oxford: The Formative Years of Sir William Walton, 2014) ‘Not until the Viola Concerto of 1929 did he arrive at a truly mature style, a blend of Classical structure, Romantic phrases, and Modernist harmonies, rhythms, and orchestration.’ It is a useful summary of Walton’s music.

William Walton’s Toccata for violin and piano was composed between 1922-23 when the composed was 20 years of age. It is a considerable work lasting for just under fifteen minutes. Christopher Palmer, in the liner notes for the Chandos recording of the Toccata explains that at this time, Walton had come under the spell of ‘the mysterious Kaikhosru Sorabji, the Parsee composer who wrote almost exclusively for keyboard (and keyboard with orchestra).’ Sorabji gathered around himself a circle of musicians including Bernard van Dieren, Peter Warlock and Cecil Gray. Walton was an adherent. Clearly, these ‘modernists’ would have had some impact on the composer. Palmer also notes the influence of Szymanowski, especially in the middle section of the Toccata.

Initial impressions are that the Toccata is an ad-hoc mixture of ‘cadenzas and rhapsodization,’ with not a lot of thematic development. The basic form is fast-slow-fast after an introduction that owes something to the start of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. (Not included on the Chandos recording, as this page in the manuscript was missing!)

This is a complex densely written piece that exploits the exuberant piano playing that is sometimes lush, typically employing the sustaining pedal and creating a wash of sound. Then again there is a great deal of virtuosity.  This does appear to have been inspired by Sorabji. The violin is often lyrical, creating a dreamlike song and but sometimes it rises to the peak of passion only to descend into strange and ‘haunting depressions.’

The Toccata was withdrawn by the composer once he had decided that this was a style which he was not going to pursue. The Quartet for strings dating from between 1919-21 and subsequently revised after the premiere was also supressed. Walton himself had said that the Quartet was ‘full of undigested Bartok and Schoenberg.’ By implication the Toccata falls into the same category.

On Saturday 27 November 1926, the Boston Evening Transcript published a long review of William Walton, written by the composer Constant Lambert. Lambert writes: the principal compositions of this period are a string quartet and a toccata for violin and pianoforte, both making considerable demands upon the virtuosity of the performers…The Toccata…a rhapsodical work showing traces of the influence of Bartok and even Sorabji, has to my mind a greater and more genuine vitality than the string quartet and contains at least one excellent passage – an emotional middle section in which the lyrical quality we noticed in the Piano Quartet in D minor (1919) makes a welcome reappearance though cast this time in a severer mould.’