Leonard Slatkin conducts the briskest Belshazzar in years. When we have had so recent a reminder of the composer's own very first wartime recording, far faster in most of its speeds than has become the custom, Slatkin's approach would have certainly pleased Walton himself... The choral ensemble is generally first-rate... What is superb is the singing of the baritone soloist, Thomas Allen, covering the broadest tonal and expressive range... Slatkin directs a splendidly rumbustious performance of the opening Toccata... [The final Giga burlesca of] the Pastorale Siciliana (with David Theodore sounding glorious on the oboe)...with its snappy cross-rhythms is exuberantly done...
