William Walton: Toccata for violin and piano Part II: Performance

In the spring of 1925, Walton had returned to London after a holiday in Spain with the Sitwell’s.

In a letter to his mother (4 May 1925) written from his lodgings at 2 Carlyle Square SW3, Walton apologises for being ‘unable to come home until the end of the month.’ This was due to having to ‘superintend the rehearsals’ of the Toccata. He was also trying to sort out a performance of his Fantasia Concertante for 2 pianos, jazz band and orchestra with the Savoy Orpheans. This latter work was never to see the light of day. Whether it was finished or not, the holograph is missing.

The premiere of Walton’s Toccata was given on Tuesday, 12 May 1925 during the London Contemporary Music Centre’s Spring Concert. The venue was No. 6 Queen Square, Bloomsbury.

This was an adventurous concert which featured the Phantasy Sonata for violin and piano (1921) by Dorothy Howell, a Piano Trio (c.1923) by the long-forgotten Liverpudlian composer, Ernest Lodge and the Cello Sonata H.20 (1920) by Arthur Honegger. The Walton Toccata was performed by Katie Goldsmith, violin and Angus Morrison, piano. Other musicians playing at the recital included Katherine Long, piano and Valentina Orde, cello.

The Times (15 May 1925) reviewer, who had arrived late at the venue regretted not hearing Howell’s Phantasy, which was described to him as ‘simple, harmonious and pleasing.’  Alas, the Lodge’s Trio was ‘diffuse’ despite being ‘harmonious.’ Honegger’s Sonata developed into ‘attractive music’ from ‘rather forbidding first movement.’ As for Walton’s Toccata this work clearly belonged to the ‘modern school.’ It was deemed to be ‘the most forceful music of the evening, original in matter and aerated in manner.’  

There are currently three versions of William Walton’s Toccata for violin and piano available on CD. The earliest was issued on Chandos in June 1991 (CHAN 9292). The performers were Kenneth Sillito, violin and Hamish Milne, piano.  This recording is incomplete, as the first page of the manuscript was at that time missing. Other works on this disc included Walton’s Duets for Children, Two Pieces for violin and piano, Two Songs for tenor and piano, Four Bagatelles for solo guitar, Anon in Love for tenor and guitar and the Valse from Façade for piano solo.

Writing in The Gramophone (October 1994) Edward Greenfield devoted several paragraphs to the work. He considered that ‘the important newcomer here is the Toccata for violin and piano, which Walton wrote between 1922 and 1923’ although he thinks that ‘the style is disconcertingly un-Waltonian.’ He points out that ‘Christopher Palmer in his notes…suggests that the young Walton was seeking to impress, above all, the then influential composer and critic, Kaikhosru Sorabji.’

Greenfield disagrees with Constant Lambert who thought that the Toccata has ‘a greater and more genuine vitality than the string quartet.’ On the other hand he concedes Lambert’s  ‘praise for the "emotional middle section". In that, with its eerie, hauntingly lyrical violin lines over ostinato pedal points, Palmer detects echoes of Szymanowski, a composer much admired by Sorabji. It certainly stands out as the most inspired section [and] in the pedal-points even anticipating the First Symphony.’

Henri Sigfridsson, violin and David Frühwirth, piano issued as two-CD set anthology of violin and piano music on AVIE AV0009. It included music by Hans Gál, Karol Rathaus, Adolf Busch, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Egon Wellesz and Kurt Weill. A surprise number on this CD was Ivor Gurney’s ‘The Apple Orchard: Scherzo’ dating from the 1920s.

In 2014 Natascia Gazzana, violin and Raffaella Gazzana, featured included a performance of Walton’s Toccata on ECM 0020437-02. Other works recorded were Alfred Schnittke’s Suite in the Old Style, Francis Poulenc’s Violin Sonata. Valentin Silvestrov’s Hommage à J. S. B., and Luigi Dallapiccola’s ‘Tartiniana seconda.’

For the ‘record’ Dorothy Howell’s Phantasy for violin and piano was released in 2004 on Dutton Epoch CDLX 7144. There are currently four recordings of Arthur Honegger’s Cello Sonata listed in the Arkiv Catalogue.