´óÏó´«Ã½

Donald Macleod explores how Walton struggled to prove his place as Britain's pre-eminent composer, as new rivals came to the fore.

The emergence of Benjamin Britten, whose dazzling successes culminated in 1945 with the opera Peter Grimes, saw Walton under pressure to prove that he hadn't fallen out of fashion. There was a suspicion that Walton's work during the war writing propaganda music for the Ministry of Information had dulled his powers. Walton started on a his first stage work reasoning that "I thought it was not a good thing for British opera to have only one opera by one composer".

As he fought to restore his reputation, Walton was also suffering great personal grief; the love of his life was terminally ill and her death would haunt him for the rest of his days.