William Walton: Muse Of Fire (Music)

When in June 1923 a bewildered audience in Londons Aeolian Hall heard Edith Sitwell declaim her Fa??ade poems through a megaphone, the 21-year-old William Walton – conducting behind a painted backcloth – stood on the threshold of fame. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s he was regarded as the white hope of British music, and a succession of works including the Viola Concerto, Belshazzars Feast and the First Symphony more than fulfilled that early promise; he was also one of the first serious composers to be involved in films. Using first-hand accounts, this book explodes the myth of Fa??ades riotous reception, examines Waltons work in both films and radio and, through contemporary correspondence, articles and interviews – wherever possible in his own words – explores Waltons life and troubled times. It brings to the fore his complex personality – remote, removed, distant in Laurence Oliviers words, in dynamic contrast with music of such vitality and drama. Composition for him was an arduous, often painful, process riddled with difficulties, uncertainties and self-doubts, and further complicated by several love affairs (one being with Italy) that inspired his finest works.STEPHEN LLOYDs previous books include a biography of H. Balfour Gardiner and a collection of Eric Fenbys writings on Delius, which he edited. In addition to record sleeve notes, programme notes, reviews and articles, he has contributed to the Percy Grainger Companion/I>, the Studies in Music Grainger Centennial Volume, An Elgar Companion, and volumes on Delius, Walton and Bliss.