George Lloyd: A Symphonic Mass for chorus & orchestra - Vocal Score [Printed Music]

"In Lloyd's music, one can experience the existential, traumatic experiences and the longing for redemption and transcendence at every turn. And one immediately understands that he must have been a born opera composer (his three operas will be released in the Lyrita edition): melodically as catchy as they are distinctive, rhythmically extremely vibrant, and consistently captivating in its events characterized by strong contrasts. While these events do not unfold in contradiction to purely musical laws, they follow an almost tangible plot that, in its surprising and extremely effective twists and turns, enthralls the listener like a thrilling film. The expressive range extends from capriciously lively scherzos (flirting with "light music") to the most intimate lyricism and on to the catastrophic.

Lloyd has amalgamated the entire tradition and transformed the simple and the complex into something unmistakably his own. He constructs his large-scale forms with a sure hand, and except in the first symphony, there is no schematic approach and no dullness. The orchestration is of magnificent power, delicacy, and versatility (one has to invoke names like Tchaikovsky or Rachmaninoff to make suitable comparisons). For beginners, I would recommend works such as the vehement first piano concerto, the transfigured cello concerto, the profoundly visionary John Donne cantata "A Litany," and, of course, all the mature symphonies. The second violin concerto (with strings) and the piano and chamber music are also wonderful. There are no shortcomings, even though around 1970 he went through a phase that tended more towards factual brevity! As a symphonist, Lloyd reaches a solitary peak in the tragic Seventh Symphony (1957-59). With "H. M. S. Trinidad," he wrote one of the most magnificent marches in history. And when, at the end of the monumental "Symphonic Mass," the solo trumpet, in an improvisationally liberating manner, winds its farewell around the vocal line, we are all simply moved. George Lloyd is a great discovery!” Christoph Schlüren, Fono Forum