Scapino (Walton)

In July 1938 William Walton, by this time established as a leading composer, received a visit from Frederick Stock, conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, who was commissioning works for the 1940–41 season to celebrate the orchestra's fiftieth anniversary.^{[1][n 1]} Walton accepted the commission, and originally planned an extensive suite of five pieces to be called Varii Capricci.^{[n 2]} He had in mind a series of commedia dell'arte sketches.^[3]

Among Walton's earlier works was Portsmouth Point, a lively overture inspired by an 1814 etching by Thomas Rowlandson, and the composer abandoned the idea of a suite in favour of another such overture. He again drew inspiration from an old print, in this case the character Scapin in Jacques Callot's Les Trois Pantalons, dating from 1619. Scapin – Scapino in the original Italian – was the rascally servant in the commedia dell'arte, who helped plan the escapades of his master, Harlequin, and in particular his amorous adventures; he was not without such escapades of his own.^[4] In the 1950 edition of the published score, Walton included this note:

The first performance was given in Chicago on 3 April 1941 with a repeat performance a fortnight later.^[5] Because of evacuation from London during the Second World War, the British premiere was given in the town of Bedford 60 miles (97 kilometres) north of London, where the BBC Symphony Orchestra was temporarily based. The composer conducted.^[6] The London premiere, also under Walton, was given by the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall on 13 December 1941.^[7]

The original score was written for an unusually large orchestra, and Walton revised the work to make it suitable for conventional orchestra forces.^[8] Wilhelm Furtwängler conducted the Philharmonia Orchestra in the first performance of the revision in November 1950 at the Albert Hall.^[9]