Viva Walton

On November 25, Chandos released my recording of Walton’s cello concerto with John Wilson and the Sinfonia of London.

At the time I felt slightly ambivalent towards how the recording would be received by the public and the press. John, the orchestra and I knew what this recording meant to us. Very few stones had been left unturned in the process of preparing and recording this extraordinary work.

The reception was nevertheless overwhelming; five star reviews in the Guardian, Times, Financial Times and Daily Telegraph, record of the week in the Independent and on BBC radio 3, concerto choice in the BBC Music Magazine and editors choice in Gramaphone. Moreover, the album sat in 2nd place in the UK classical chart (behind André Rieu) for several weeks.

Ambivalent still? Perhaps a little bit, but it isn’t half nice when hard work is recognised.