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Editorial Reviews

On this CD, Neville Marriner conducts music by William Walton from two Shakespeare films, arranged as suites by Christopher Palmer. Laurence Olivier starred in As You Like It (1936) and directed and starred in Hamlet (1948). "As You Like It" definitely has the sound of a film score; it was only Walton's second, and he seems caught up in the conventions expected of English film composers of the era -- soaring romantic lines with swelling, overripe strings, undergirded with a Holstian plumminess. Walton does manage to include moments of more subtlety, particularly in his setting of "Under the Greenwood Tree," sung gracefully by soprano Catherine Bott, and several of the quieter movements have considerable charm. "Hamlet: A Shakespeare Scenario" includes a part for speaker, performed here by John Gielgud reciting some of the play's more famous lines over Walton's music. Walton had matured appreciably as a film composer, and much of the music for this score could be as easily heard as music from a tone poem or a symphonic score as from a film -- its thematic material is more abstractly interesting, with stronger internal musical logic. The contrapuntal writing and orchestration show far more sophistication, and there is a genuine depth of feeling not evident in the earlier score. Both scores contain attractive music, and Palmer's arrangements make them effective for concert presentation. Marriner leads the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields in lively performances, and Gielgud is earnest, but not overbearing in the Hamlet scenes. The CD should be of interest to fans of mid-century British music. Stephen Eddins, All Music Guide

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