Walton [Concerto] Concertos – Violin and Orchestra in B minor ^a; Cello and Orchestra ^b. ^a Dong-Suk Kang (vn); ^b Tim Hugh (vc); English Northern Philharmonia / Paul Daniel.

Naxos (Super budget price) (CD) 8 554325 (60 minutes: DDD).

This welcome new issue in Naxos’s excellent Walton series neatly follows up their recent coupling, closely parallel, of Britten’s Violin Concerto and Cello Symphony (8/99). Though the Walton Violin and Viola Concertos have been coupled several times previously, usually with the same soloist, the companies have shied away from this equally apt coupling of the two larger-scale string concertos. Here again, as in the Britten, the cellist is Tim Hugh, outstanding in every way, whose reading in some ways is the most searching yet.

More than direct rivals – and I am counting them all, not just those I have listed – he finds a thoughtfulness, a sense of mystery, of inner meditation in Walton’s great lyrical ideas – notably the main themes of the outer movements and the yearning melody of the central section of the second movement Scherzo. Most strikingly his pianissimos are more extreme. The openings of both the outer movements are more hushed than I have ever known on disc, with Hugh in inner intensity opting for broader speeds than usual. Not that he dawdles, as the overall timings of each movement make plain, and the bravura writing finds him equally concentrated, always sounding strong and spontaneous in the face of any technical challenges.

As in their previous Walton recordings, Paul Daniel and the English Northern Philharmonia play with equal flair and sympathy, so that the all-important syncopations always sound idiomatic. But there I have to make a reservation over the recording, for though textures are commendably clear, the strings in particular are too distantly balanced, lacking weight, so that the occasional moments where the violins are required to surge up warmly sound thin, hardly the fault of the players.

There is a similar balance in the Violin Concerto, but there I welcome the way that the brass raise the echoes of Leeds Town Hall, making Walton’s orchestration sound even more sumptuous than usual, despite the lack of body in the strings. Dong-Suk Kang here follows up the success of his Naxos recording of the Elgar Violin Concerto (4/92), playing immaculately with fresh, clean-cut tone, pure and true above the stave. If this is not quite so warmly romantic an approach as that of Kyung-Wha Chung or Tasmin Little, there is nothing cold or unsympathetic about his reading, with the rubato in the Neapolitan second theme of the Scherzo delectably pointed. Many will also applaud the way that Kang opts for speeds rather faster and more flowing than have latterly been favoured. That follows the example of Heifetz as the original interpreter, and Kang similarly relishes the bravura writing, not least in diamond-sharp articulation in the Scherzo. An excellent coupling – absolutely not just as a bargain – of two outstanding performances, with the Cello Concerto offering new depths of insight.

EG