Phillip Hunt responds to Paul Jackson’s review
I was interested to read Paul Jackson’s comment in his review of the CD of Lloyd’s Brass Band music, that Royal Parks was not considered challenging enough for the players. This was indeed the case, but not a view that George agreed with as he knew that the second movement in particular, In Memoriam, a slow intense melody, would be very difficult to bring off satisfactorily, and so it proved.
However he got his own back on his critics the following year with his next Test Piece, Diversions on a Bass Theme. During an interview I had with him in making a BBC Local Radio programme to celebrate his 80th birthday he explained, “I got the bit between my teeth when I wrote Diversions and I wrote some really nasty trills here and there and that satisfied them. By then I had found out, they must have tunes, but they must have some very difficult passages as well. If it’s so difficult they can hardly play it and it’s got a good tune to end with, then they are happy.”
It is a pity that Lyrita did not take the opportunity to include his fourth and last Test Piece, Kings Messenger, to complete the set, particularly as his original brass band music has been so popular and has received by far the most performances of any of his music.