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Edith Sitwell's invitation to William Walton to collaborate on an innovative, revolutionary new work came at a critical moment in the young composer's career, and Façade proved to be his first great success. The peerless combination of a peculiarly English dry wit, genuine pathos and superlative technical skill remains an extraordinary achievement. Sitwell's verses conjure a satirical and poignant world of bourgeois late-Victorian England, while Walton's settings unfailingly enhance and enrich the texts in a work in which words and music are unquestionably of equal importance. This includes the first recording of Small Talk (1922) and three numbers first performed in 1977 but subsequently rejected by the composer. Album Tracks 1. Façade - An Entertainment~Fanfare 2. Façade - An Entertainment~Hornpipe 3. Façade - An Entertainment~En Famille 4. Façade - An Entertainment~Mariner Man 5. Façade - An Entertainment~Long Steel Grass 6. Façade - An Entertainment~Through Gilded Trellises 7. Façade - An Entertainment~Tango-Pasodoblé 8. Façade - An Entertainment~Lullaby for Jumbo 9. Façade - An Entertainment~Black Mrs Behemoth 10. Façade - An Entertainment~Tarantella 11. Façade - An Entertainment~The Man from a Far Countree 12. Façade - An Entertainment~By the Lake 13. Façade - An Entertainment~Country Dance 14. Façade - An Entertainment~Polka 15. Façade - An Entertainment~Four in the Morning 16. Façade - An Entertainment~Something Lies Beyond the Scene 17. Façade - An Entertainment~Valse 18. Façade - An Entertainment~Jodelling Song 19. Façade - An Entertainment~Scotch Rhapsody 20. Façade - An Entertainment~Popular Song 21. Façade - An Entertainment~Fox-Trot 'Old Sir Faulk' 22. Façade - An Entertainment~Sir Beelzebub 23. Façade 2 - A Further Entertainment~Flourish - Came the Great Popinjay 24. Façade 2 - A Further Entertainmen
