The complete Walton songs: there aren’t that many but Siân Dicker, Kyrstal Tunnicliffe, Saki Kato certainly make us understand why they are all worthy of attention

William Walton: Complete Song Collection;  Siân Dicker, Krystal Tunnicliffe, Saki Kato; DELPHIAN
Reviewed 12 January 2025

Shedding a light on Walton’s small but valuable song output from remarkable early songs to the late masterpieces, all performed with love, attention and often lyrical exuberance

William Walton wrote music in a wide variety of genres and whilst his orchestral and film music might stand top dead centre in his output, the voice is a constant throughout his career with choral music, opera and of course the reciters in Facade, whose medium of reciter and ensemble seemed to offer the composer such a fertile ground that the original Facade spawned further material.

But what does not crop up that often is song. Walton does not seem to have had a habit of songs, and most of his song-writing seems to have relied on others to choose the texts, he wasn’t a composer to read poetry to select his songs. His two major song cycles, A Song for the Lord Mayor’s Table and Anon in Love both date from late in his career, and both have intriguing links back to Walton’s only full-scale opera, Troilus and Cressida. Whilst for all the fertility of his ideas for Facade, he wrote just three songs based on it. 

So it is all the more valuable to have Walton’s Complete Song Collection on this disc from Delphian, performed by soprano Siân Dicker, pianist Krystal Tunnicliffe and guitarist Saki Kato. Alongside the three Facade settings, A Song for the Lord Mayor’s Table and Anon in Love we have Four Early Songs, Tritons, Under the greenwood tree and Beatriz’s Song (from Christopher Columbus).

We begin at the end, so to speak, with A Song for the Lord Mayor’s Table written in 1962 and commissioned by the Worshipful Company of Musicians, to be performed by Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Gerald Moore. There are intriguing links to Walton’s opera Troilus and Cressida as Schwarzkopf was first choice to performed Cressida (she withdrew but did record excerpts) whilst the texts for the song cycle were chosen by Christopher Hassall, the librettist for Walton’s opera.

The Lord Mayor’s Table (setting Thomas Jordan) has just the right sense of lyrical exuberance with Dicker producing some vibrant coloratura, all supported by the colour and movement in Tunnicliffe’s piano. Dicker works hard on the words but there is no doubting that the soprano tessitura and Walton’s writing making diction tricky. Glide Gently (setting William Wordsworth) really does glide and slide, with Dicker and Tunnicliffe creating an eerie, intense atmosphere. Wapping Old Stairs (setting an anonymous text) is a complete delight, as always, with lovely rhythmic appeal and Dicker relishing those terrific words, and she makes the refrain almost seductive. Holy Thursday (setting William Blake) is focused and unsentimental, thankfully, and expands wonderfully towards the end. The Contrast (setting Charles Morris) is vividly articulated and pointed, with a fabulous ending, and then for the anonymous text of Rhyme Walton takes us back to the mood of the opening and the two performers return to the lyrical exuberance and sheer joy.

Anon in Love was commissioned for the Aldeburgh Festival in 1960, and was premiered by tenor Peter Pears and guitarist Julian Bream. There are more Troilus and Cressida links here, Christopher Hassall was in charge of selecting the texts and in fact Pears had created the role of Pandarus in the opera. Walton had not written for guitar before, but the piece was sufficiently successful that five years later Walton wrote the Five Bagatelles for solo guitar also for Bream.

Anon in Love represents a change in scale and mood. There is a lyrical intensity to Fain would I change that note, yet whilst the two performers make the piece intimate, it is full of colour. O stay, sweet love is engaging with an appealing rhythmic vigour, and by contrast there is a tender beauty to Lady, when I behold the roses yet Dicker brings a sense of lyrical exuberance to the elaborations in the vocal line. My Love in her attire is impulsive and urgence, voice and guitar complementing each other and driving each other on. I gave her Cakes and I gave her Ale is appealingly vivid with its rhythmic articulation seeming to link to The Lord Mayor’s Table. Finally, To couple is custom brings things to an appealingly urgent conclusion.

 Next come the Four Early Songs, composed between 1918 and 1920. The manuscripts of three of them only reappeared after Walton’s death and they were not published as a set until 2022. The four set poetry by Swinburne, probably chosen for Walton by the Dean of Christ Church who had taken the young man somewhat under his wing. Walton never seems to have been a great reader of poetry and all his songs seem to have arisen from others choosing the texts. The four make an appealingly contrasting group, each one very English lyrical with only occasional hints of the later Walton.

Another early song is Tritons from 1921, setting a 17th century text by William Drummond. This is more dramatic, the writing rather striking and a lot edgier than the previous four songs.

Under the greenwood tree and Beatriz’s Song take us into the world of Walton’s film and theatre work. The Shakespeare setting was written for a 1936 film of As you like it, for the actress Elisabeth Bergner to sing (though she never performed it). Beatriz’s Song came from a 1942 radio play by Louis MacNeice. Walton evidently disliked his incidental music being extracted, feeling that the music had not real function out of its original context, which is why the majority of his music from these sources that we hear today was created by others.

 Under the greenwood tree has an engaging simplicity to it, whilst Beatriz’s Song combines quite a direct vocal line with a more complex piano accompaniment. Both represent Walton at his most mature and are definitely worth hearing.

Finally, we turn to Facade. Walton uses material from the instrumental accompaniment to create the vocal line. Daphne ended up as an additional number in the final published version of Facade and Walton always felt the song was more successful than the recitation, whereas Through gilded terraces and Old Sir Faulk are closer to the originals.

Daphne does not immediately conjure up Facade and instead creates its own rather appealing atmosphere, Walton’s writing clear yet with the familiar quirks to the harmony. Old Sir Faulk returns us to a more familiar atmosphere, and Dicker manages to make words and rhythms count as well as enjoying the melodic felicities of the new vocal line. Finally Through gilded terraces where the seductive, Spanish-effect piano is complemented by Dicker’s seductive vocal lines – ‘Ladies, time dies’.

This collection makes you wonder why we have not had this type of collection before. The performers bring that sense of enthusiasm and care to both the lively well-known numbers and the lesser known but no less deserving. After listening to this Dicker, Tunnicliffe and Kato certainly make us regret that Walton did not write more songs.

William Walton (1902-1983) – A Song for the Lord Mayor’s Table
William Walton – Anon in Love
William Walton – Four Early Songs
William Walton – Tritons
William Walton – Under the greenwood tree
William Walton – Beatriz’s Song
William Walton – Three ‘Facade’ Settings
Siân Dicker (soprano)
Kyrstal Tunnicliffe (piano)
Saki Kato (guitar)
Recorded 5-7 January 2024, St. Mary’s Parish Church, Haddington
DELPHIAN DCD34328 1CD [53.42]