A Song for the Lord Mayor's Table
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A Song for the Lord Mayor's Table is a cycle of six songs with music by William Walton, first performed in 1962. The words, chosen by the librettist Christopher Hassall, are by six different British poets, two of them anonymous. Originally for soprano and piano, the cycle was later orchestrated. The work was premiered at Goldsmiths' Hall, London on 18 July 1962 by Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Gerald Moore, during the City of London Festival. The orchestral version was first performed at the Mansion House, London on 7 July 1970, by Janet Baker with the English Chamber Orchestra conducted by George Malcolm.
The cycle was commissioned by the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths as a contribution to the first City of London Festival. At Walton's request, Christopher Hassall, who had written the libretto for the composer's opera Troilus and Cressida, selected six poems to be set. The oldest is "The Lord Mayor's Table" by the 17th-century English poet Thomas Jordan, and the other five are by 18th- or 19th-century poets – Charles Morris, William Blake, William Wordsworth, and two anonymous authors.
Walton composed the cycle at his home in Ischia in the first half of 1962. He was not a pianist, and found writing for the instrument irksome. He told his publisher that the first song in particular needed an orchestra.[1] The soloist at the first performance was Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, whose voice Walton had in mind when composing the music for Cressida in his opera. She was an accomplished linguist and according to Gerald Moore, who played the piano at the premiere, she sang the songs "as if she were an Englishwoman".[2]
Walton orchestrated the cycle in 1970, and this version was first performed on 7 July of that year, by Janet Baker with the English Chamber Orchestra conducted by George Malcolm.[3] The venue for the premiere – most appropriately, The Times commented – was the Mansion House, the Lord Mayor of London's official residence.[4]
