William Walton first foundsuccess in the early 1920s, when he set to music a cycle of abstract poems by Edith Sitwell, whom he was the protégé in his early career. A very inventive score, quite modernist, written for wind sextet, percussion and cello, in which the poems are recited and not sung. Though the suites are popular and often recorded, the original version is quite rare!
Featuring as narrators, two great figures of British acting: Fenella Fielding (known for her distinctive voice and numerous recordings of audio books) and Michael Flanders.