George Walker: Sinfonia No. 5 "Visions" - EP

Never one to spend his twilight years basking in a nostalgic, “autumnal” style, George Walker composed his final work as a searing response to a notorious hate crime: a 2015 mass shooting that killed nine African American churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina. The 94-year-old Walker was profoundly shaken by news of the murders and resolved to pay homage to the victims through his Sinfonia No. 5. Titled “Visions”, the 15-minute score is less a single dramatic arch than a series of haunting threnodies and charged outbursts, calling on the listener to focus on individual elements as they rise to the surface. The mood suggests both protest and empathy, Gianandrea Noseda tells Apple Music Classical. “It is very compact, with very complicated rhythmical patterns,” he says. “But in other moments, there is compassion and sympathy with the victims.” When piano dissonances interrupt the textures, we’re reminded that Walker himself began his career as a concert pianist. Most striking are a series of brief, elusive texts, some of which reflect on the transatlantic slave trade, and which are recited by soprano, tenor, two baritones and a bass. The texts are spoken, and remind Noseda of Puccini’s use of a parlando (speaking) style in moments of heightened emotion. “When you get to the highest temperature, and want to make something more expressive, just make the words like the end of La bohème,” he says. “There is not music anymore—only spoken words.” The National Symphony Orchestra rises to the work’s demands with incisive and supple playing. “It’s very challenging,” says Noseda, “but also very rewarding.”