Ashkenazy conducts Elgar and Walton

Vladimir Ashkenazy (conductor)
James Ehnes (violin)

BORENSTEIN If you will it, it is no dream (World Première)
ELGAR Violin Concerto
WALTON Symphony No. 1

Elgar’s epic Violin Concerto was composed for celebrated Viennese virtuoso Fritz Kreisler, who shortly before giving the 1910 world première in London vowed ‘I will shake the Queen’s Hall!’ Elgar's own opinion was that 'It's good! Awfully emotional! Too emotional...but I love it.' It is accompanied this evening by Walton's great First Symphony, a work and composer that Vladimir Ashkenazy has championed for many years.