Walton: Sinding Viola Concertos

This album with violist Eivind Holtsmark Ringstad performing the Walton and Sinding Viola Concertos is a beauty. Of course, it helps that I'm a fan of both composers' works. But even more helpful are the excellent performances by Ringstad and the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra.

...In this release, we get quite a nice performance of the Walton Violin Concerto from Ringstad, who simply sails through the challenges of the piece. Lots of expressiveness, excellent interaction with the orchestra, very attractive tone—Ringstad brings a lot of very enjoyable music making to this performance. And conductor Joshua Weilerstein and the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra are very willing and engaging partners to the performance...

Sinding's Suite in A minor Op 10, was written 'in the old style' for violin and piano in 1889 and orchestrated soon afterwards... Ringstad's performance of the Suite is alert, stylish and very technically proficient. He plays with panache. And the longer lyrical lines in the second movement are simply beautifully played, with nice delicacy and warm resonant tone. The orchestra, now conducted by Arvid Engegård, is unfortunately not as equal a partner here as in the Walton—adequate but not at the level of performance Ringstad delivers. It sometimes feels as though he must pull them along with him. Nonetheless, Ringstad's performance is well worth the cost of admission in my book—he is just superb...

I'm delighted to have this recording of both works; they are both eminently enjoyable. And Lawo's sound quality simply enhances everything.