For their fortieth anniversary, in 1958, the Cleveland Orchestra commissioned a new work from Walton. The resultant Partita for orchestra, intended to ‘be enjoyed straight off’ as Walton explained, is in three movements, the titles of which reinforce the composer’s love of the Mediterranean (where, on the island of Ischia, he eventually made his home after his whirlwind marriage in 1949).

Walton’s Partita is a virtuosic and wide-ranging score, from the dazzling tuttis in the first movement and finale to the languorous central siciliana—opening with a duet for oboe and viola before expanding into one of the composer’s finest soundscapes with virtually pointilliste instrumentation. The brilliance of the outer movements crowns the Partita’s finale with a memorable tune on first trumpet, releasing the tension and heralding the closing section in a mood of triumphant good humour, the E major ending of the Spitfire Prelude and Fugue infusing the Partita throughout.

from notes by Robert Matthew-Walker © 2017