** 1/2 WALTON: “Facade” Lynn Redgrave, narrator. Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Joseph Silverstein, conductor. (Arabesque Recordings)

Among the giddiness that followed the horrors of World War I, count the terribly clever wordplay poems of Edith Sitwell, a number of which were set to music by the young William Walton for a fashionable home entertainment. Lynn Redgrave narrates the poems with expert attention to the notation rhythms. The chamber-size ensemble, under the direction of JosephSilverstein, creates the perky or languid moods as required.

Still, it all seems a bit hothouse now. Maybe it struck Walton that way too when he revisited the idea in 1977 with “Facade 2: A Further Entertainment,” included here. This music is leaner, less jokey, more allusive to composers such as Stravinsky. Additional Sitwell poems, read straight, make as much or as little sense as the ones set to music.

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Recordings are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent).