Sir William Turner Walton was an English composer. During a sixty-year career, he wrote music in several classical genres and styles, from film scores to opera. His best-known works include Façade, the cantata Belshazzar's Feast, the Viola Concerto, the First Symphony, and the British coronation marches Crown Imperial and Orb and Sceptre.
Ischia is a volcanic island in the Tyrrhenian Sea. It lies at the northern end of the Gulf of Naples, about 30 kilometres from the city of Naples. It is the largest of the Phlegrean Islands. Although inhabited since the Bronze Age, as a Greek emporium it was founded in the 8th or 9th century BCE, and known as Πιθηκοῦσαι, Pithekoūsai.
Sir Frederick William Mallandaine Ashton was a British ballet dancer and choreographer. He also worked as a director and choreographer in opera, film and revue.
Hans Werner Henze was a German composer. His large oeuvre is extremely varied in style, having been influenced by serialism, atonality, Stravinsky, Italian music, Arabic music and jazz, as well as traditional schools of German composition. In particular, his stage works reflect "his consistent cultivation of music for the theatre throughout his life".
Frederic Russell Harty was an English television presenter of arts programmes and chat shows.
Arthur Desmond Colquhoun Gore, 9th Earl of Arran, styled Viscount Sudley between 1958 and 1983, is a British peer and Lord Temporal in the House of Lords, sitting with the Conservative Party.
As one moves away from Naples in almost any direction, there is prominent musical activity to be found. These include, for example, the restoration and use of a number of the so-called "Vesuvian villas" in and near Ercolano, a string of once luxurious villas built in the 18th century and severely damaged by aerial bombardment in World War II. The most prominent of these is the Villa Campolieto, already restored, open and the site of chamber concerts by the Alessandro Scarlatti association.
The Victoria Medal of Honour (VMH) is awarded to British horticulturists resident in the United Kingdom whom the Royal Horticultural Society Council considers deserving of special honour by the Society.
Troilus and Cressida is the first of the two operas by William Walton, and was premiered in 1954. The libretto was by Christopher Hassall, his own first opera libretto, based on Geoffrey Chaucer's poem Troilus and Criseyde. Walton dedicated the score to his wife, Susana.
The National Children's Orchestras of Great Britain, more commonly known as NCO, is a registered charity which provides orchestral training for children aged 8 to 14. The organisation comprises three age-banded orchestras and four project orchestras. Entry is by audition and every year approximately 500 young musicians are selected to play in the orchestras. It offers a life-changing experience to talented young musicians.
The flora of Italy is all the plant life present in the territory of the Italian Republic. The flora of Italy was traditionally estimated to comprise about 5,500 vascular plant species. However, as of 2019, 7,672 species are recorded in the second edition of the flora of Italy and in its digital archives Digital flora of Italy. In particular, 7,031 are autochthonous and 641 are non native species widely naturalized since more than three decades. Additionally, further 468 exotic species have been recorded as adventitious or naturalized in more recent times.
Johannesburg Festival Overture is a composition for orchestra by the English composer William Walton, commissioned to mark the seventieth anniversary of Johannesburg in 1956. It is a short, lively piece, fast-moving throughout.
La Mortella is a private garden in the island of Ischia, Italy. It was first opened to the public in 1991. It was created by Susana Walton (1926–2010), wife of the composer William Walton, starting in the 1950s as the main residence for the couple.
The Creatures in the Garden of Lady Walton is an album by Clogs, released in March 2010. This is their first non-instrumental album, featuring several guest singers, including Shara Worden, singer and songwriter of the indie rock band My Brightest Diamond, Matt Berninger, lead singer of Clogs' sister band the National and Sufjan Stevens, a prominent indie folk singer/songwriter.
William Walton's Cello Concerto (1957) is the third and last of the composer's concertos for string instruments, following his Viola Concerto (1929) and Violin Concerto (1939). It was written between February and October 1956, commissioned by and dedicated to the cellist Gregor Piatigorsky, the soloist at the premiere in Boston on 25 January 1957.
Simon Verity is a British sculptor, master stonecarver and letter cutter. Much of his work has been garden sculpture and figure sculpture in cathedrals and major churches. He has works in the private collections of King Charles III, Sir Elton John and Lord Rothschild.
Mavis Lilian Batey, MBE, was a British code-breaker during World War II. She was one of the leading female codebreakers at Bletchley Park.
Façade is a ballet by Frederick Ashton, to the music of William Walton; it is a balletic interpretation of items from Façade – an Entertainment (1923) by Walton and Edith Sitwell. The ballet was first given by the Camargo Society at the Cambridge Theatre, on 26 April 1931. It has been regularly revived and restaged all over the world.
The Spanish pavilion houses Spain's national representation during the Venice Biennale arts festivals.
Siesta is a short piece for small orchestra, written by William Walton and premiered in 1926. It was later used for a ballet by Frederick Ashton. Walton was a devotee of Italy, and its influence is apparent in this work.
