George Lloyd: Symphonies Nos. 7 & 9



A new composer for me. Of course I've been aware of him for years, and knew his music would probably be to my taste, so I don't know why it's taken me so long to get to it. Good timing though, now that all his symphonies are finally available in 2 handy box sets! I'm certainly liking what I'm hearing so far.

Step forward! Benjamin Frankel (31 January 1906 – 12 February 1973). I put on his Symphony No 2 last night with a view to a possible charity shop drop and found myself instead,beguiled by lush,almost late romantic orchestration with colourful touches of instrumentation  and long moments of stillness including the haunting chiming of bells. Funnily enough,I can remember being sent a cassette of off-air tapes of Frankel by an enthusiast many years ago. I can only imagine his astonishment and delight when,some years later,cpo released a complete cycle;though,I've got to admit I wasn't too excited by them at the time,but being a polite person I told him I loved them! (The sound quality of the recordings DID NOT help). I'm going to have to listen some more now!                                                                                                                         

Maybe I should give Frankel a go? Twelve tone music has never done much for me, I tend to agree with the composer I'm listening to right now: "I thought it was a ****-eyed idea that produced horrible sounds" (George Lloyd). Maybe this would be a good entry point though?

Grace Williams: Missa Cambrensis. The CD arrived today, and it's been great to hear this again after 9 years!

That's great news! I have just ordered the CD (together with some Ruth Gipps and George Lloyd). It is a different performance though, as the conductor and soloists are different from the allegedly "unreleasable" 2016 performance.  I was at that concert, and remember the announcement at the start that one of the soloists had laringytis and to "please excuse any flaws in his singing". It sounded fine to me, but clearly someone disagreed. In any case, regardless of which performance it is, it's great to finally have this fantastic work on CD.