William Walton: Belshazzar's Feast 3/5

[stickwagger]

Oh dear! The choral phrases cannot be conducted in a general smooth beat. There has to be some sub division. Much too slow.

[frater09]

this is just perfect tempo

[PositiveLiving]

Praise ye, the God of Lento. This is INSANELY slow!

[presbyterosBassI]

I have to hand it to these Germans. This is such an idiomatically British piece. Choir does well but is cautious. Orchestra looks young, and too many trumpet "clams".

Look at the BBC Masterworks clips with Andrew Davis.

[ybravura]

I have a recording of a 1953 performance conducted by Sir Adrian Boult (on the Nixa label), which I consider definitive, but only in certain brief sections are the tempi here slightly slower that that of Sir Adrian's. The solosits unfortunately employ more vibrato, but whaddya gona do?

Otherwise this is a perfect performance.

[lukemcgregor]

Miss Money-Sterling: I've got a Porsche! (snobbish laughter)

[atrio199]

Regrettably so adagio it hurts! Shame

[csmweirdo]

this is too slow my skl chethams did this in bridgewater hall at the start of summer holidays n it was way faster

[nboltitude]

One of the slowest tempos I've heard for this section of the piece, but it really brings out some interesting details and harmonies that I had not noticed before. Very good!

[frater09]

I totally agree about the tempo. I've heard things that previous to this just flipped by me. I love it.

[wyndhunter01]

too slow

[samanthawolf90]

Oh wow! I love this!