If you like Walton 1, you'll like this...

[Sicmu]

I've been a huge fan of Walton's music for many years and also looked for composers who sounds like him. To me the Clifford is OK but suffers several orchestration issues, I agree that Braga Santos sounds a little bit like Walton but IMO his modal approach of the harmony is closer to VW ( strangely enough, it's something one can also notice in Gonchiksumla's Symphonies).

I could add a couple of more composers to the list : both RR Bennett and Rutter's Partita for orchestra ( obviously a tribute to Walton's own partita who was himself strongly influenced by the score of Roussel's Suite in F !), Cooke' first ( like Walton he was also influenced by Hindemith), Joubert's first, Julian Orbon, Bo Linde ( especially with the violin concerto) and to stick with the australians : Robert Hughes, Dorian Le Gallienne, Clive Douglas, Lovelock. Some of their works are available here :

http://www.abc.net.au/classic/australianmusic/presented/fulllist.htm?WT.mc_id=ClassicFM_FrontPage_classicamp_composer

if anybody is interested I can upload the very Waltonian first Symphony of Robert Hughes and if I may add my own orchestral study :

http://www.mediafire.com/?mty2dmnwih0

[Latvian]

Some excellent points! I'd never considered the Walton influence in some of the composers you mention, such as Orbon and Linde. I'll have to listen to Lovelock and Hughes again in light of your observation, too. Hughes' music is magnificent -- Dutton or Toccata should consider him!

While Hindemith certainly did influence Walton and Cooke greatly, I hear much more Hindemith than Walton in Cooke.

RR Bennett, Rutter, and Joubert -- definitely. I'd always thought of LeGallienne as more in the English pastoral style, but now that you mention it, there's certainly Walton there, too.

I haven't had a chance to listen to your work yet -- thanks for posting it, though!

[Alan Howe]

Thanks, Sicmu. I'd certainly be interested in hearing Robert Hughes' 1st Symphony...

[Sicmu]

Some excellent points! I'd never considered the Walton influence in some of the composers you mention, such as Orbon and Linde. I'll have to listen to Lovelock and Hughes again in light of your observation, too. Hughes' music is magnificent -- Dutton or Toccata should consider him!

While Hindemith certainly did influence Walton and Cooke greatly, I hear much more Hindemith than Walton in Cooke.

RR Bennett, Rutter, and Joubert -- definitely. I'd always thought of LeGallienne as more in the English pastoral style, but now that you mention it, there's certainly Walton there, too.

I haven't had a chance to listen to your work yet -- thanks for posting it, though!

Yes I do think that Lovelock's Viola concerto is Waltonian in places but one can also find some Finzi in it.

Hughes is in my view a combination of some Walton, Bax and Ireland ( he also wrote "a Forgotten Rite") but of course he is more than that : his beautiful music really deserves modern recordings.

I agree that Le Gallienne's Sinfonietta is a pastoral one in the vein of Finzi and VW, I will give another listen to the symphony that sounds darker in my memory .

Thinking of Walton's music, Gareth Walters ( Primavera Overture) and Richard Mills are two more names that come to my mind but I haven't played music by these composers for a while.

[John H White]

What a pity Walton's 1st symphony was just a one off! Having waited so many years for its successor, I was so disappointed when he actually produced it. It would seem that some composers reach a peak and then go down hill.

[Sicmu]

What a pity Walton's 1st symphony was just a one off! Having waited so many years for its successor, I was so disappointed when he actually produced it. It would seem that some composers reach a peak and then go down hill.

I disagree : Walton's first is a masterpiece indeed but the second is also a very good work. There is no drama like in the first but the music is just incredible : lyrical and robust and the variations on the 12 tone theme of the last mvt allow him to display a total command of the orchestra, much more subtle and refined than in the fisrt Symphony. The cello concerto is also a masterpiece BTW.

[vandermolen]

Klaus Egge Symphony No 1 (Aurora CD) is waltonian I think - a fine work.

[Latvian]

I don't find the 2nd the least bit inferior to the 1st. Perhaps my experience is a bit unusual, in that I became familiar with the 2nd Symphony several years before ever hearing the 1st Symphony. When I finally heard the 1st, I was bowled over, but it didn't cause me to think any less of the 2nd.

Many fans of the 1st Symphony were probably expecting something similar from the 2nd, and were disappointed when Walton took a different direction stylistically. To me, both works are masterpieces in their own ways, just different.

[Delicious Manager]

For those who enjoy the Sibelius influence in Klami's First Symphony, try No 3 by Leevi Madetoja.

For me, the natural successor to both Walton and Nielsen in his symphonies is Robert Simpson - simply one of the finest series of symphonies of the 20th century.

[Alan Howe]

I personally find little of Walton in Simpson - Nielsen, yes...

[vandermolen]

Walton fans might also enjoy Arthur Benjamin's Symphony No 1 of 1945 - another epic work. Stanley Bate's 4th Symphony has a wonderful ending of epic hopeless defiance - a very fine symphony - just as good as his No 3.

[albion]

Stanley Bate's 4th Symphony has a wonderful ending of epic hopeless defiance - a very fine symphony - just as good as his No 3.

I'm really glad to see another positive response to Bate's 4th - the Dutton disc doesn't seem to have quite caught the reviewers' attention to nearly the same extent as that of the third.

Perhaps they've moved on ...