William Walton composed the brief and tuneful Johannesburg Festival Overture on commission as part of the seventieth anniversary of that city. Though less ambitious in its length, performance forces, and expressive scope than In Honour of the City of London (composed for chorus and orchestra in 1937), the Johannesburg Overture nonetheless features Walton's characteristic orchestrational energy and rhythmic drive, combined with an approach to melody and thematic unity that is perhaps more straightforward than in many of his pieces. Whereas many of Walton's instrumental works (excluding the lighter songs and marches) leave the listener with general musical impression, but any memorable melodies, the Johannesburg Festival Overture leaves the listener whistling its tunes. The piece, which runs about eight minutes in performance, calls for a large orchestra with triple woodwind forces, harp, and a considerable percussion battery. The latter group includes standard European fare (martial-sounding snare and bass, cymbals, etc.), augmented by tom-toms, rumba sticks, castanets, and maracas. The ethnic touch added by these instruments, whose exoticism seeks to evoke the "African" primarily by not sounding European, might seem somewhat contrived or even imperialist to post-apartheid audiences, as does Walton's occasional reliance on African melodic materials. Likewise, the jubilance of the syncopated, arching melodies sounds clearly British. A careful listener also needs to be aware of the composition's historical context; that said, on its own terms the music is accessible and enjoyable. Walton gives us ample opportunity to familiarize ourselves with the infectious melody by composing the piece in a sort of customized rondo form in which the main melody, comprising a balanced phrase of 16 bars that fits easily within the ear, returns four times after its initial appearance. The intervening thematic episodes, including the "African" passage, are generally less syncopated and melodically energetic, though Walton does maintain interest through his creative orchestration. The added percussion, which does not sound partcularly authentic, succeeds nonetheless in adding a dramatic urgency to the piece, particularly near the end, where the meter changes from duple to triple and the orchestra incessantly reiterates a D major harmony. As this push comes to a head, the ensemble suddenly veers down to a sneering trill on E flat before resolving in D with a perfunctory flourish.

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