BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
Albany Symphony Orchestra
Lyrita SRCD 2418
Lloyd’s seventh symphony ‘Proserpine’ of 1959 is a long three movement work opening with the joyful dancing side of life, beginning with a repeated xylophone anticipating John Adams’ Short ride in a fast machine. The slow movement begins with a Scottish folk song-like melody, before a small reference to Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier. The finale is about the desperate side of our lives, but rejoices in lively music and floating melodies over a restless accompaniment.
Symphony No.8 was composed in 1961 and orchestrated in 1965. There is a motif in the opening tranquillo which reminds me of ‘rock-a-bye baby’, while the ensuing Allegro includes a Happy Birthday like reference. The slow movement opens with very effective harp notes over rustling strings. Is it a funeral march? The finale is an extended Tarantella. It was the 1977 broadcast of this symphony which led to a public outcry to hear more of Lloyd’s music.
Lloyd did not attempt to write a ‘significant’ ninth symphony like Beethoven. Composed in 1969, this one begins very much on the lighter side with melodies reminiscent of Music while you work. The Largo enters a different sound word with distinctly dissonant harmony, particularly in the brass. That mood is blown away by the finale with its accompanying motor rhythm and brass fanfares. The melodies somehow reminded me of a Tchaikovsky finale.
The 1981 tenth symphony is unusually scored for brass and piccolo. The subtitle November Journeys refer to Lloyd’s visits to cathedrals when he took advantage of cheap rail fares!
At just under an hour and with five movements, the eleventh symphony is Lloyd’s longest. The first movement expresses fire and violence contrasted with mysterious and questioning quietness. The Lento is a mournful sustained utterance followed by a colourful leggiero e brillante. The fourth movement is a funeral march with an insistent accompanying figure occasionally echoing Mars from Holst’s The Planets.
Lloyd said farewell to the symphony with his twelfth in 1989. We are not used to a quiet opening, but that’s what we have in this one movement piece which falls into three distinct sections.
How to sum up? Lloyd is a natural symphonist in the sense that he can create works, often large in scale, which are full of invention and variety. The fourth and eleventh stand out for their gravity and any Lloyd symphony gives pleasure in its fast movements. I do not feel that there is symphonic argument in them, such as you get in those of Robert Simpson for example. And to compare these symphonies with those of Rubbra, Brian, Frankel or Malcolm Arnold is unfair, because Lloyd has his own distinctive voice. By any reckoning these symphonies give much pleasure.
Review by Ronald Corp
Geoffrey Atkinson has also reviewed this CD. Read his review