Walton’s Violin Concerto was composed during a trip to Villa Cimbrone in Italy, where he was bitten by a tarantula. This is reflected in the second movement, based on a ‘tarantella’. The piece has endured as one of his most popular works and is contrasted here with Barber’s Violin Concerto and famous Adagio for Strings.

Born in Hertfordshire and graduating from the masterclass of Bela Katona at Trinity College of Music in 1982, Thomas Bowes joined the London Philharmonic in 1985 and, a year later, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. In 1987 he gave his London recital debut and between 1988 and 1992 was the founding leader of the Maggini String Quartet. In 1989 he was invited to become the leader of the London Mozart Players, London’s oldest established chamber orchestra, making his BBC Proms debut with them and Jane Glover in 1991.

Still in great demand as a guest leader, Bowes has led many of the UK’s finest orchestras – including LSO, Philharmonia, London Sinfonietta, SCO and BBC Symphony Orchestra.

The Malmö Opera Orchestra and Joseph Swensen join him for this recording. Swensen has served as Principal Conductor of Malmö Opera (Sweden) since 2007 and is Conductor Emeritus of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

“First up was Walton’s highly passionate Violin Concerto, handled with immense skill by Thomas Bowes…The result is an extraordinary fusion of the player and the music, in which Bowes seems to engage totally with the composer’s emotions and intentions…And all this was combined with Bowes’s own musicianship, technical mastery and tonal purity to produce a performance of rare quality." - Oxford Times