ALWYN: Sym No.4, Sinfonietta

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra;
Lloyd-Jones, David

8.557649

Symphony No. 4, completed in 1959, forms the epilogue to Alwyn’s projected cycle of four symphonies which he had begun in 1948, and had taken him a decade to complete. Another symphony (No. 5, Hydriotaphia) was to follow in 1973, but is not connected in anyway with the earlier works in this medium. A ‘motto-theme’ with the leaping interval of a seventh, which is first introduced at the beginning of the First Symphony and appears in various guises in all four works, reaches its apotheosis in the final section of the Fourth. The composer says the following of this work: “Scored for a normal classic orchestra, the Fourth Symphony is cyclic in form; the thematic material exposed in the first movement is subjected to constant transformations and utilized in all three movements. An unusual feature is that the Scherzo is the central and most substantial movement. The work was first performed by Barbirolli and the Hallé Orchestra at a Sir Henry Wood Promenade concert in 1959."

CD

Muzyka klasyczna

Naxos

02-01-2006

747313264926