5 Bagatelles

The name “Bagatelle” suggests a trifle, and this exquisite set of miniatures for the guitar are beautifully designed examples of inconsequentiality—written in 1971 for the leading British player of the time, Julian Bream, and featuring one of Walton’s most alluring tunes. Widely considered by composers as requiring specialist knowledge, the guitar had previously featured in Walton’s output as an accompanying instrument in his song cycle Anon in Love, also written for Bream. And the Bagatelles were a long-delayed continuation of a warm relationship between composer and performer, playful but “authentic” in their handling of the guitar’s potential. Framed by fast opening and closing movements (and starting on open strings that Walton worried would be mistaken by the audience for tuning up), the three inner ones are slower—with central prominence given to the syncopated Latin rhythms of that memorable tune (marked “Alla cubana”). It proved so memorable that the whole set was later transcribed for orchestra under the title Varii Capricci and choreographed as a ballet by Frederick Ashton.