It was with Façade that young William Walton made his remarkable entry into the world music scene, a scene he never left after that, while always remaining at a safe distance away from too visible a life. In 1922 he set Edith Sitwell's "absurd" poems to music, but in a particularly original way: the vocalist does not sing, but he or she must recite the poems to painstakingly precise rhythms, together with the instrumental lines. It might be seen as a form of Sprechgesang without the Gesang, if you will. The superficial resemblance with Schönberg’s Pierrot Lunaire does not stop at this new vision of vocal art: Façade also calls for a very small instrumental ensemble of six musicians, but there the resemblance stops: Walton’s score remains resolutely tonal. One might be tempted to draw some parallels with the Weill’s Threepenny opera, except that this latter work was written 1928, six years after Façade... In other words, if there is a possible influence, it would be from Walton To Weill! Façade is a huge stroke of genius. This new recording makes usage of the final version of the work, for Walton often reworked it over the years before he declared himself satisfied. Two speakers share the spotlight here, Carole Boyd and Zeb Soanes. And as Façade is not very long, the album ends with an interview of Edith Sitwell in person, recorded 1955: dazzling fun, self-derision and yet such an unfathomable depth in her views on poetry, being British and so many other subjects. © SM/Qobuz