Varii Capricci[n 1] is an orchestral work byWilliam Walton. Completed in 1976, it is the composer's transcription for symphony orchestra of hisFive Bagatelles for solo guitar written four years earlier. Walton revised the orchestral score in 1982. It is his last substantial orchestral work. The final version was used by the choreographerFrederick Ashton in a 1983 ballet in Walton's memory.
In 1960 Walton had composed a song cycle,Anon in Love, for tenor and guitar. The original guitarist,Julian Bream, approached Walton again in 1971, this time for solo guitar music. As he had with the song cycle, Bream helped Walton with technical details of guitar playing, and he edited the final version for performance. The Five Bagatelles play for around fourteen minutes in total. The timings are taken from Bream's 1973 recording.[2] The five movements are:
Bream gave the first performance of the complete work in theAssembly Rooms, Bath on 27 May 1972 in a concert marking the composer's seventieth birthday.[3]
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of theRoyal Festival Hall in 1976, theGreater London Council asked Walton for a new work. He decided on an orchestral version – he called it "a free transcription" – of the Bagatelles. The original guitar version was dedicated to his friend and fellow composerMalcolm Arnold, to whom Walton wrote in April 1976
Walton redefined the movements for the orchestral version. The five movements are:
TheLondon Symphony Orchestra, conducted byAndré Previn, gave the first performance of the work at the Festival Hall on 4 May 1976. InThe Times.Alan Blyth called Walton "a composer who, in his eighth decade, still delights in youthful exuberance tinged with gentle lyricism";[5]The Musical Times commented, "the skill with which Walton has transformed his guitar pieces into brilliant movements for orchestra will be appreciated by connoisseurs of scoring. Not a profound or important work, but endearing and entertaining".[6] ThemusicologistChristopher Palmer has called Walton's score "a wholly typical product of his mellow and fruitful Indian summer – typical in its subtle Mediterranean and Latin American inflexions, its delicacy of instrumentation (colour being a sybaritic end-in-itself much more in the later than in the earlier Walton) and its relaxed objective melodiousness".[7]Walton revised the last movement and the work was given in its altered form in January 1981.[4]
The choreographerSir Frederick Ashton, a friend of the composer since the 1920s, proposed to use theVarii Capricci for a new ballet ostensibly set in the garden of La Mortella, Walton's house onIschia, and asked him to make some adjustments to the finale. Walton did so and sent the new version to Ashton on 6 March 1983. Two days later Walton died and Ashton's ballet became a commemoration, dedicated by Ashton "to my lifelong friend".[4] It was premiered by theRoyal Ballet, visiting theMetropolitan Opera House, New York, on 19 April 1983. The two leading roles, La Capricciosa and Lo Straniero, were danced byAntoinette Sibley andAnthony Dowell.[8]
Reviewing the New York production, Oleg Kerensky wrote, "Everybody expectedVarii Capricci, Sir Frederick Ashton's new ballet ... to be a hit. Nobody expected it to be a total surprise. But that's what it is – a different Ashton, recalling the jazzy and witty styles of hisFaçade andJazz Calendar but with more than a hint of the decadent atmosphere ofNijinska'sLes biches".[8] The set was byDavid Hockney, with a green and orange backdrop and a swimming pool, representing Walton's garden in Ischia. The piece depicts a mild flirtation between the langorous Capricciosa and thegigolo-like Straniero.[n 4] Kerensky judged the ballet "no mere divertissement. It's a miniature masterpiece".[8]
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