Jonathan Aasgaard: Walton

The Strad Issue: December 2025

Description: A cello principal glitteringly steps into the limelight

Musicians: Jonathan Aasgaard (cello) Sinfonia of London/John Wilson

Works: Walton: Cello Concerto; Scapino; Symphony no.1

Catalogue number: CHANDOS CHSA5328

Walton’s Cello Concerto may have had a shaky start in life – a nervous breakdown for its dedicatee Gregor Piatigorsky, a serious car crash for Walton just before its 1957 UK premiere and then a lukewarm reception from critics – but John Wilson’s Sinfonia of London and Norwegian cellist Jonathan Aasgaard certainly redress the balance.

The fresh, clear orchestral sound, perfectly captured by Chandos’s engineers, grabs you from the start, with the lush strings especially stunning. Aasgaard, also the orchestra’s section principal, plays with an easy, lyrical flow and a speaking tone that communicates instantly. The fleet and fantastical Allegro appassionato sees him scurrying up and down the fingerboard, with fiendish high octaves and passagework skilfully dispatched, before disappearing into the stratosphere on a harmonic.

The Theme and improvisations finale opens with the solo cello’s controlled, taut playing of the theme over gentle pizzicato strings. Aasgaard brings the toughness Walton requested from Piatigorsky to the first of the two extended solo cadenzas’ lower-string double-stopped passages, while the higher double stops in the second cadenza are smooth, with each note speaking.

The concerto is flanked by a dazzling performance of Walton’s early Scapino overture and an account of the First Symphony in which the orchestra feels like an endlessly flexible instrument in Wilson’s hands.

JANET BANKS