Nimbus Records releases Steve Elcock, Symphony No. 8 and Violin Concerto on Friday 7 June 2024 (NI. 6446), with the English Symphony Orchestra and soloist Zoë Beyers, conducted by Kenneth Woods, as part of their 21st Century Symphony Project.

The 21st Century Symphony Project

The 21st Century Symphony Project (21CSP) is an English Symphony Orchestra initiative conceived by conductor Kenneth Woods. The initial goal was to commission, premiere and record nine new symphonies by nine different composers. The 21CSP has been called 'one of the most important musical initiatives of modern times' by Robert Matthew-Walker, Editor of Musical Opinion, and 'the most important series of commissions and recordings of our times' by musicologist and cultural commentator Peter Davison, former Artistic Consultant at the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester.

Alongside Steve Elcock’s Symphony No. 8, other works in the 21st Century Symphony Project include David Matthews Symphony No. 9 (NI 6382), Philip Sawyers Symphony No. 3 (NI 6353) and Adrian Williams, Symphony No. 1 (NI 6432).

 Symphony No. 8
'Following the weighty Sixth and Seventh symphonies, I felt the need to write a smaller scale piece before tackling the Ninth, the finale of which was already written and was monumental enough in character to require some substantial movements to precede it. I attempted to produce such a lighter piece by turning to an early string quartet written in 1981 when I was aged 24. I had dismissed it as juvenilia but thought it could perhaps be salvaged by arranging it for string orchestra and filling out the textures… While my first two symphonies still await either performance or recording after a quarter of a century, the Eighth was already on the programme of the Three Choirs Festival before I had even finished reorchestrating it… Symphony no. 8 was commissioned by the English Symphony Orchestra and first performed by them as part of the Three Choirs Festival in Kidderminster on July 28, 2021.'
© Steve Elcock
 
Violin Concerto
'With the first movement, I wanted to achieve a return to the classical momentum that had largely been lost throughout the Romantic era and onward. The energy is unflagging, verging on the desperate, relief being provided only by the two appearances of the expansive second theme; but even this is underpinned by a niggling rhythm in the violas. The second movement provides a welcome contrast. Its opening makes use of change-ringing techniques applied to slowly moving scales in violins and violas, evoking distant bells ringing across a valley.' © Steve Elcock

'Juxtaposing two major works which confirm his standing among the leading European symphonists of his generation ... This latest release warrants the strongest of recommendations.'
Richard Whitehouse, Arcana, 18 May 2024

'One of the UK's foremost composers.'
Geoff Pearce, Classical Music Daily, 26 May 2024

Maureen Buja, Interlude: 27 May 2024

Remy Franck, Pizzicato, 12 June 2024

'The more I discover and experience the music of Steve Elcock, the more I feel the need to recommend it to anyone who happens to read this review. If you enjoy classical music in general, with a preference for symphonic writing, this living composer ticks all the boxes when it comes to harmonic integrity, orchestration colors and textures, emotive power and structural stability.'
Jean Yves Duperron, Classical Music Sentinel, 13 June 2024

'A thoroughly gripping, involving album, urgently recommended.'
Guy Rickards, Gramophone, June 2024

Electronic press kit available for reviewers from Ulysses Arts

Lyrita Records releases George Lloyd's A Litany and A Symphonic Mass, conducted by the composer, on 3 May 2024, with Bounemouth Symphony Orchestra/Brighton Festival Chorus, soprano Janice Watson and bass Jeremy White, and Philharmonia Orchestra with Guildford Choral Society (SRCD 2419).

‘I just write what I have to write’. The artistic credo of George Lloyd conveys the directness and emotional honesty of his music, which is distinctive and written with integrity. He was fortunate enough to discover his individual and versatile musical voice at an early age. The deceptively artless quality of his scores stems from a thorough grounding in composition techniques.

Lloyd wrote in a traditional idiom enriched by a close study of selected models, Verdi and Berlioz chief among them. There is a remarkable consistency to his output, most of which was created spontaneously and without the incentive of a commission. Conceived on a grand scale, Lloyd’s late choral works build fruitfully upon his previous experience in other genres. They share with his operas an innate lyricism, natural affinity with the human voice and feeling for the long line, while their structural balance, intensive working out of motifs and rich orchestral palette owes a significant debt to his prolific symphonic output.

Chris de Souza writing in The Independent, 1998, described the Brighton Festival commission of A
Symphonic Mass as ‘perhaps the climax’ of Lloyd’s ‘astonishing career’. In his review of the original
release of the present recording, Ivan March was moved to describe the Mass as ‘one of the finest pieces of English choral writing of the twentieth century’.

Electronic press kit available for reviwers.
Digital download and streaming links will be published here.

Lyrita Records releases George Lloyd's Requiem and Psalm 130 on 3 May 2024, with the Exon Singers, countertenor Stephen Wallace and organist Jeffrey Makinson, conducted by Matthew Owens.

‘I just write what I have to write’. The artistic credo of George Lloyd conveys the directness and emotional honesty of his music, which is distinctive and written with integrity. He was fortunate enough to discover his individual and versatile musical voice at an early age. The deceptively artless quality of his scores stems from a thorough grounding in composition techniques.

Lloyd wrote in a traditional idiom enriched by a close study of selected models, Verdi and Berlioz chief among them. There is a remarkable consistency to his output, most of which was created spontaneously and without the incentive of a commission. Conceived on a grand scale, Lloyd’s late choral works build fruitfully upon his previous experience in other genres. They share with his operas an innate lyricism, natural affinity with the human voice and feeling for the long line, while their structural balance, intensive working out of motifs and rich orchestral palette owes a significant debt to his prolific symphonic output.

Lloyd produced the final score of his Requiem a month before his death in 1998. It is inscribed ‘to the memory of Diana, Princess of Wales’. Compassionate, reassuring and even, at times, joyful, this is a conscious leave-taking on the part of the composer. His compact and cogent setting of Psalm 130 constitutes, arguably, his most fluently effective use of a cappella choral writing.

Electronic press kit available for reviewers from Ulysses Arts.
Digital download and streaming links will be published here.

To coincide with the centenary of 100th anniversary of Kenneth Victor Jones's birth, Lyrita Records is releasing an album containing five première recordings on Friday 3 May 2024, performed by soloists from the London Mozart Players (SRCD 434).

Jones, who also composed a substantial catalogue of film scores, wrote music in neo-classical style: direct and energetic, he stretches the boundaries of tonality without breaking them. The language is familiar - Françaix and Shostakovich come to mind - engaging, playful and immediately graspable.

Kenneth V. Jones's “love of music began at the age of ten, when he started composing hymn tunes. He began his musical career as a chorister at St. Nicholas’s College of Church Music, Chislehurst, under Sir Sydney Nicholson, and received his first newspaper review in 1935 for his participation in a children’s opera by Nicholson.

The Times’ critic observed that ‘Master Kenneth Jones must be mentioned for his playing of the harpsichord at an age when most of us did not know there was any such thing’… In 1947 he enrolled at the Royal College of Music, where he studied composition, theory, piano, organ and conducting… In his final year, he won the Royal Philharmonic Prize for composition with his Concert Overture, premiered at the College in November 1950. Only eight years later, in 1958 he became Professor of Music at the Royal College of Music and was also appointed an examiner to the Associated Board.” © Paul Conway
 
London Mozart Players principal cellist Sebastian Comberti writes:
“My first encounter with Kenneth V. Jones was in 2016 when our family moved to the village of Bishop stone in the Sussex Downs. Over the course of several months, I was able to learn more of Kenneth’s musical life. As soon as he mentioned having once written a string quartet, it was decided to programme the work during the following Season of Seaford Music Society, of which Kenneth was a long-standing member and whose programming I had recently taken on. Such was the warmth of the reception upon hearing the work that it was decided to explore more of Kenneth’s chamber music output, and thus the idea for this album was born.

We have Kenneth to thank for the fact that the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music made the decision, at his suggestion, to include contemporary compositions in their graded examination syllabuses. Several of the short character pieces that Kenneth wrote for the ABRSM remain in the syllabus to this day, and a selection of these is included on this recording. It gave me huge pleasure to be able to present to Kenneth the first edit of the current album, just a few days before his death in December 2020. He was absolutely thrilled.”

Maureen Buja,Interlude, 10 June 2024

Electronic press kit available for reviewers from Ulysses Arts.

LYRITA PUBLISHING
                                                               
Kenneth V. Jones: Sonata for Pianoforte | Wind Quintet No. 2 | Quinquifid (1980) | String Quartet (1950) | Piano Quintet (1967)

Sheet music for all the works on SRCD.434 awre also published as individual volumes by Lyrita Publishing on 3 May 2024 (SRMP 0164 - SRMP 0168).

The world première recording of Andrew Smith's Old Irish Blessing, performed by Caritas Chamber Choir with soprano Catherine Futcher, directed by Benedict Preece, is released by Ulysses Arts on 15 March 2024, in partnership with Platoon. This single is the first pre-release for a new album of contemporary choral music launching in summer 2024.

Andrew Smith (b. 1970) is a British-Norwegian composer with a growing international reputation for choral and vocal music that links tradition with a contemporary idiom. 

He read Music and English at the University of Oslo. Composing, a hobby since the age of eight, began in earnest in the late 1990s when he wrote a piece for the newly-formed Trio Mediaeval (Norway). The subsequent recording of this and other music for the Trio brought Andrew to the attention of the American audience and led the way to collaborations with groups such as New York Polyphony, Khorikos Chamber Choir and Gothic Voices.

Andrew’s Requiem, composed for the Nidaros Cathedral Girls’ Choir in response to the tragic events in Norway in July 2011, was first performed in Trondheim in 2012. The work features on the Nidaros Cathedral Girls Choir album LUX, awarded a Grammy for Best Immersive Audio Album in January 2020.

Andrew has been commissioned and performed by numerous choirs in Norway and abroad. Recent commissions include Lukaspasjon, a setting in Norwegian of the Passion according to St. Luke for Oslo Cathedral Choir, and O Antiphons for the Khorikos Chamber Choir in New York, first performed in 2019.

Andrew Smith’s music is published principally by Norsk Musikforlag, with some works published by Oxford University Press.

Lyrita Records releases Cyril Scott, Piano Sonata No. 1, performed by Simon Callaghan, on 5 April 2024.

Sonata for Piano Op. 66: composed 1908; revised edition from 1930s

'Cyril Meir Scott (1879-1970) is one of a group of British composers to have benefitted from three cultural features of recent decades: increased curiosity from performers and listeners; a more inclusive outlook from musicologists and critics; and the music industry spotting a gap and a demand. A much more colourful picture of British music in the first half of the twentieth century has resulted.

Scott was a prolific writer of fiction and nonfiction as well as a composer of several hundred pieces. His writings and music are deeply invested in mysticism and the occult. This element in Scott’s work, as Sarah Collins has noted, helps us to see beyond received notions of Scott as either a trivial exoticist or an unjustly-neglected pioneer, and to appreciate his music on its own terms.' ©Brian A. Ingis

'Strongly recommended'.
Kevin Mandry, British Music Society, 14 March 2024

'Back into the light'
Maureen Buja,Interlude, 8 April 2024

Simon Callaghan performs internationally as a soloist and chamber musician, in parallel with a successful recording career. Simon Callaghan’s distinguished and eclectic discography includes recordings for Hyperion, Nimbus and Lyrita, among others. He is heard regularly on BBC Radio 3 and on multiple streaming platforms: his most recent single on Apple Music with Coco Tomita
surpassing one million streams in its first month of release.

He is a strong social media enthusiast, using it to promotion for classical music in general and seeing it as a particular tool in his advocacy of the rare and unexplored. He is Director of Music at London’s celebrated Conway Hall, only the sixth incumbent since the Series's foundation in 1887. He was elected a Steinway Artist in 2012.

Eletronic press kit for press reviewiers available from Ulysses Arts.

Lyrita Records releases George Lloyd's complete symphonies and other orchestral works, conducted by the composer, on 1 March (SRCD.2417) and 5 April 2024 (SRCD.2418).

'Lloyd became a symphonist despite himself. When he was in his twenties he seemed destined to be a composer of operas and it is likely that, had the vicissitudes of war not intervened, he would have written music for the stage exclusively. In an article for the June 1939 issue of the Musical Monthly Record, Harry Farjeon wondered why music for Lloyd was ‘not centred in the concert hall but in the theatre’ and quoted the young composer as being ‘interested only in opera’.

There are strong traces in the symphonies of what might have been: the intensely lyrical, cantabile nature of the writing; the intermezzo-like movements; the opera buffa qualities of the finales and the feeling for the long line which runs through those supple and sweeping melodies all denote a born opera composer. In the event, his operatic aspirations were cruelly cut short and it is to his courageous, life-affirming twelve symphonies that we must look to chart his development, recovery and eventual triumph.' © Paul Conway

Jean-Yves Duperron, Classical Music Sentinel
Symphonies Vol. 1, March 2024
Symphonies Vol. 2, April 2024

Electronic press kit available for reviewiers from Ulysses Arts.

Nimbus Alliance releases Augusta Read Thomas's Terpsichore’s Box of Dreams and other world prèmiere recordings on 5 April 2024.

Augusta Read Thomas writes:

'I am eternally grateful to the entire Nimbus Records team. Music for me is an embrace of the world, a way to open myself to being alive in the world--in my body, in my sounds, and in my mind. I care deeply about musicality, imagination, craft, clarity, dimensionality, an elegant balance between material and form, and empathy with the performing musicians, recording engineers, as well as everyone who works in the presenting organizations.'
 
'Collaborating with the artists whose performances are on this recording has been one of the most exhilarating experiences of my creative life. It is difficult to express how grateful I am to the many extraordinary colleagues who have made this possible. It is pure magic -- deeply rewarding, fun, and sincere.'

'Previous instalments in this long-running survey of Augusta Read Thomas's œuvre have ranged far and wide within a catalogue that spans some 30 years to date. In contrast, we explore here a variety of works of more immediately recent vintage - the earliest dates from 2018.  Between them, they fill out a vividly-coloured snapshot of Thomas' irrepressible current compositional persona. Many of her long-standing preoccupations are to be found in this collection: love of dance which propels the music into a tirelessly evolving voyage in both rhythmic and narrative terms; the iridescent, bell-saturated sonic environment that fills her musical landscapes with light and clarity; the sense of jazz auras acting as guiding spirits propelling the music on its course with its restless, hocketing rhythms and penetrating harmonic flavours; a celebration and understanding of instrumental virtuosity; the overall sense of her music engaged in a deep-seated interaction between the present and the past.' © Paul Pellay

Augusta Read Thomas

The New Yorker called her “a true virtuoso composer.” Critic Edward Reichel wrote, “Thomas has secured for herself a permanent place in the pantheon of American composers of the 20th and 21st Centuries. She is without question one of the best and most important composers that this country has today. Her music has substance, depth, and a sense of purpose. She has a lot to say and knows how to say it—and in a way that is intelligent yet appealing and sophisticated.”

Album Contents and Performers

TERPSICHORE’S BOX OF DREAMS 18:18
For flute (picc.), oboe, clarinet (bass clarinet), alto saxophone (baritone sax.), horn, 2 percussionists, harp, piano, 2 violins, viola, and 'cello (2023)
Grossman Ensemble;  Tim Weiss, conductor

1. Terpsichore Enters: 1:15
2. Dance No. 1 Scatter: 2:01
3. Dance No. 2 Tiptoe Caper: 1:11
4. Dance No. 3 Pointillistic Groove Flutter Pirouettes: 1:46
5. Dance No. 4 Slalom: 1:25
6. Dance No. 5 Dream: 5:09
7. Dance No. 6 Gambol: 2:37
8. Dance No. 7 Romp: 1:59
9. Terpsichore Departs: 0:45

10. STAR BOX
For percussion quartet or percussion ensemble (2020): 6:20
John Corkill, Ian Ding, Kyle Flens, Cynthia Yeh

11. DANCE MOBILE
For 13 players or small chamber orchestra (2021): 14:31
Grossman Ensemble. Stefan Asbury, conductor

12. LAETITIA’S CAPRICE
For solo soprano saxophone (2023): 3:03
Phil Pierick, soprano saxophone

13. CARNIVAL for bassoon and wind ensemble (2022): 12:37
State University of New York Fredonia Wind Ensemble; Nadina Mackie Jackson, bassoon
Paula Holcomb, conductor

14. BEBOP RIDDLE II for cello and piano (2022): 7:12
Alexander Hersh, 'cello. Tom Hicks, piano

15. CON MOTO for percussion quartet (2018): 7:28
John Corkill, Adam Rosenblatt, Garrett Arney, Nonoka Mizukami

CLICK BELOW TO DOWNLOAD OR STREAM:

iTUNES

QOBUZ

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Lyrita Records releases Christopher Brown, 24 Preludes and Fugues (SRCD.2431), with pianist Nathan Williamson, on 2 February 2024.

Christopher Brown writes: 'I set myself the challenge of writing a book of 24 Peludes and Fugues in all the major and minor keys and I approached family, friends, and several institutions I had been associated with, to commission a prelude and fugue each, with many of the resultant commissioners asking for references to pieces of music that had a special meaning for them, a request that I tried to follow through wherever possible.

The project took me eight years to complete, and it was not until 2019 that I finally put the finishing touches to the concluding B minor Fugue. The score was published on my birthday in June 2020 and I received an unexpected email from Nathan Williamson, saying that he would love to learn the music, and, because of the restrictions imposed by Covid lockdowns, it might be a good time to see if a complete recording might be contemplated. To our delight, Lyrita Recorded Edition agreed to take on the project, leading to the release of the present boxed set.'

'Very early in the planning process I had decided that the set would be divided into four books, each made up of six Preludes and Fugues, based around one of the notes of the name BACH (B flat, A, C and B natural in German notation), and starting and ending in the major or the minor tonality of the four keys. In addition I wanted to reference the cryptogram of Dmitri Shostakovich (DSCH – D, E flat, C and B), whose own masterly set of 24 Preludes and Fugues also casts its influence across my set.'

Available from all major retailers and digital platforms
https://lnk.fuga.com/nathanwilliamson...
https://www.wyastone.co.uk/new_releases

Electronic press kit available for reviewiers from Ulysses Arts.

CLICK HERE TO BUY CD

Lyrita Records's album, releasing on 1 March 2024, gives long-deserved attention to three prolific but neglected British composers: Dorothy Howell (1898-1982), Pamela Harrison (1915-90) and Madeleine Dring (1923-77). Working in the same country at the same time, these composers had much in common. All studied at London's Royal Academy or Royal College of Music, and had dual careers as composer-performers. They wrote tonal music in a style that would fall out of fashion in the later twentieth century: this contributed to their disappearance from concert halls. And above all, they composed with a great sense of humour. The music on this disc sparkles with wit and energy.

In the mid-twentieth century the two piano combination was popular in the concert hall and for light entertainment. It proved a perfect medium for composers seeking to bring lightness of touch to their work, allowing them to write pieces that were fun to play and to watch.

'Callaghan and Takenouchi play with wonderful elan and relish, clearing enjoying the sound-worlds and having a great deal of fun. And they must be thanked for digging up these treasures.'
Planet Hugill, 6 March 2024

Ron Schepper, Textura, 1 March 2024

'This recording of three women composers’ music for two pianos is inspirational in its effect.'
Maureen Buja, Interlude, 25 March 2024

'Trust me: you NEED this album.'
Graham Rickson, The Arts Desk, 27 April 2024

Simon Callaghan

'A musician of curiosity and discernment, Callaghan’s robust piano-playing is also thoughtful, subtle and refined.' (Gramophone) Steinway Artist Simon Callaghan performs internationally as a soloist and chamber musician, in parallel with his career as a recording artist. Callaghan’s repertoire includes over fifty concertos including standard solo and chamber works of the 19th and 20th centuries, and much that is rare and unexplored.

Hiroaki Takenouchi

Heralded by The Times as 'just the sort of champion the newest of new music needs', and praised as 'impeccable in his pianism and unfailing in his idiomatic grasp' by Gramophone, Takenouchi’s curiosity and a natural penchant for integrity makes his playing and his vast repertoire unique. His love for the classical masters – particularly Haydn, Beethoven and Chopin – is equalled by  his passion for the music of Medtner, lesser-known British composers and contemporary music.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD ON ITUNES OR STREAM ON APPLE MUSIC

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Nimbus celebrates composer Richard Blackford's seventieth anniversary year with a major series of new album releases, music publications and concerts throughout 2024.

5 January 2024: Nimbus Music Publishing releases scores for Babel, a new cantata for chorus, soloists, piano, organ and percussion (NMP.1126) and Clarissa's Tango. The latter has two versions: for violin and piano (NMP.1172), and for violin and string orchestra (NMP.1255). Clarissa's Tango also will be released on the same date as an audio (NI.1580) and audio-visual single (NI.1581), performed by Clarissa Bevilacqua, violin, and Thomas Hoppe, piano.

1 March 2024: Nimbus Records releases Blackford's Songs of Nadia Anjuman, performed by The Britten Sinfonia and soprano Elizabeth Watts, as an EP (NI.6444):

Also on 1 March 2024: Lyrita Records releases La Sagrada Familia Symphony, with BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Richard Blackford, and Babel: A Cantata, with the Ikon Singers conducted by David Hill (SRCD.432):

Ron Schepper, Textura, 27 Feburary 2024

'Entering the Spritual Forest'
Maureen Buja, Interlude, 11 March 2024

New Works by Richard Blackford from Nimbus Music Publishing: 5 January 2024

Richard Blackford writes about his new works:

Babel is a dramatic cantata based on the stories of Noah’s Flood and the Tower of Babel, with a thrilling and colourful score using organ, piano and percussion. Babel uses the chorus extensively to narrate both stories, as well as to evoke the terror of the Flood, the exuberance of the construction of the tower, and of course the multi-lingual babble of languages to which they are condemned. In addition to set pieces, such as the Nimrod baritone aria, and the soprano aria, ‘Do not fear the largeness of the showers’, the three soloists often sing together as the other-worldly voice of God. The instrumental forces are relatively modest, with the piano duet supported by the sustaining power of the organ, backed by two percussionists. This sound world is redolent of those Britten masterpieces for amateur choirs, ensembles and audiences, which have inspired many composers since, and to which I too am gratefully indebted.'

Babel's vocal score (NMP.1126) is for sale; full score and parts (NMP.1127) are available to hire. Approximate duration 38 minutes.

'In Buenos Aires, tango is described as the forbidden dance. In this performance the violin and piano capture not only the sound but also the essence of tango, creating an evocative dance between the instruments. The violin has the lead melodic material and the piano has some really exciting riffs and plays the supportive role guiding their interplay.

I remember seeing the amazing film Scent a Woman starring Al Pacino and Gabrielle Anwar. Pacino plays a blind veteran but he has an amazing sense of smell and he invites a beautifully young woman to dance a tango, something that he does supremely well. It's just one of the coolest most beautiful scenes that I can remember. After I saw it for the fifth time I just woke up one night with the idea of a tango which wouldn't go away, so I had to write it.

Clarissa’s Tango starts with a short, cadenza-like introduction on the solo violin, the tango is cast in rondo form, with the central C section moving from the home key of D minor to D major. It’s an ebullient duet that makes virtuoso demands on the solo violin, from extreme high tessitura passages and multi-stops to fast passage work as the violin elaborates on the main tango melody.'

'Tango is very visual and we wanted to capture this as a part of our release. Alongside performing the première and making the audio recording, we also filmed a companion video in Berlin. Violin and piano, represented by red and black, are two perfect dance partners who find each other in this darkly lit club-like atmosphere, where the camera dances around them eliciting this Tango. But in the sunlight outside our red and black characters fail to find each other, only when they perform this Tango do then they finally come together as one. I performed Richard Blackford's Tango with the LGT Soloists throughout their tour of Europe, Asia and Australia from November 2023 to January 2024.' Clarissa Bevilacqua

Click here for more details of Richard Blackford's live performances.

Richard Blackford is becoming one of the foremost concert and media composers in Europe. His concert works are performed regularly around the world and his music for film and television is broadcast frequently in almost every European country. His acclaimed Pietà won an Ivor Novello Composer Award in 2020 for the Choral Category and has already received multiple performances.

'The music comes from the heart with integrity, and a technical assurance...There is a crying need for this kind of music.' The Independent on Sunday

Further Richard Blackford 2024 album, publication and live concert details will be published here.
Electronic press kit and listening links for revieweres available from Ulysses Arts.

'An absolute must-have for anyone deeply invested in powerful and polished 20th century symphonic writing.'
Jean-Yves Dupperon, Classical Music Sentinel, March 2024

'Those of us who have admired Lloyd’s music for many years will welcome the consolidation of his legacy in this way and will hope it stimulates more performances and perpetuates his name even more.'
Jonathan Woolf, MusicWeb International, 13 March 2024

'Lloyd’s music is direct even when elusive, commanding even when equivocal, and is strongly lyrical – some of his lyricism is simply unforgettable. It is also richly, ripely and colourfully orchestrated.'
Symphonies No.7-12: Jonathan Woolf, MusicWeb International, 9 April 2024

'Rejoice! A glorious symphonic cycle by a British composer has been issued as a set for the first time.'
Damian Thompson, The Spectator, 13 April 2024

'Richard Whitehouse applauds Lyrita’s advocacy on behalf of George Lloyd.'
Richard Whitehouse, Gramophone, 23 May 2024

SRMP 0031 – The Dying Tree (1992), for large orchestra, 10 minutes
A single movement orchestral sketch, first performed at London's Barbican Centre in 1994 by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra with the composer conducting. The Dying Tree is one of Loyd's few works not yet been recorded.
 
SRMP 0033 – Floating Cloud (1993), for large orchestra, 16 minutes
A single movement orchestral sketch. First performed in 1993 by the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra with the composer conducting. Floating Cloud is one of the few works that has not yet been recorded.
 
SRMP 0035 – In Memoriam (1984), for large orchestra, 6 minutes
In Memoriam pays heartfelt tribute to seven young bandsmen murdered by IRA terrorists on 20 July 1982 as they played in their band in Regent’s Park.
 
SRMP 0037 – Le Pont du Gard, for large orchestra, 10 minutes
A single movement orchestral sketch, inspired by the ancient Roman aqueduct that crosses the Gardon River in Vers-Pont du Gard near Remoulins in Southern France, were Lloyd spent a summer holiday.