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George Lloyd: 'Merry-Go-Round' III. Allegro con brio from Symphony No. 9 for Orchestra [Printed Music] Short Pieces for Orchestra
£150.00
In stock
Catalogue Number
SRMP0144
for Symphony Orchestra
54-page A3 wire-bound Conductor's Score & 34 x A4 folded Parts
Duration: c.8 mins
George Lloyd writes: "When a composer has written eight symphony he may find that the horizon has been blacked out by the overwhelming image of Beethoven and his one and only Ninth. There are other very good No. 5s and No. 3s, for instance, but how can one possibly have the temerity of trying to write another Ninth Symphony? I solved my problem by treating it lightheartedly and the third movement is the merry-go-round that just keeps on going round and round and round. Very light and bright. A sparkling piece, beautifully orchestrated with lots of opportunity to highlight individual sections. The title is the composer’s own. For some audiences the themes may reawaken memories of film music from the 1950s. ‘Merry-Go-Round’ was premiered at the Royal Albert Hall by Ealing Symphony Orchestra June 2025.
A recording of this work is available on CD [SRCD2418] or to Download and Stream
Short Pieces for Orchestra
Nimbus and Lyrita have published a series of shorter orchestra works by Augusta Read Thomas, Richard Blackford, Gavin Higgins and George Lloyd. These Short Pieces for Orchestra (SPO) will be sold with a three-year, unlimited performance licence offering much better value for money than typical hire arrangements. Some pieces have been extracted from larger symphonic works and each is published with a descriptive name to support thematic programming and engage with the new “streaming” audiences. This series supports the desire to perform, programme and introduce audiences to new repertoire for less initial cost, and allows multiple performances for no additional cost. Each kit will contain a full conductors score and one “master part” per instrument along with a licence for the ensemble to reproduce and perform as often as they like for the next three years. Between three and fifteen minutes SPO are perfect for opening your concert or inserting just before the interval to create a talking point.
Manufacturer: Wyastone Estate Limited, Wyastone Leys, Monmouth, NP25 3SR
Email: sales@wyastone.co.uk
Reviews:
"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