Lloyd, G: The Road Through Samarkand

Here we have a disc for lovers of George Lloyd's music - all selections appearing for the first time. Aubade was composed during the summer of 1971. It is a fantasy and each section can be played separately or without a break. It is a substantial work lasting almost 40 minutes. About Eventide George Lloyd writes: "The little tune in this piece has a long history. When I was about ten years old I wrote it as a setting of a carol by my father. In 1950 my father used this poem in his libretto for our opera John Socman; at some point he told me that I had already had a tune for it and he thereupon produced a copy of my manuscript that he had made all those years ago. In 1989 I thought that Aubade might one day be recorded and that something complimentary might be needed, so I took the carol tune and worked it up into its present form. I also arranged it for brass band." About The Road Through Samarkand Mr. Lloyd writes: "This work was originally written in 1972 as a solo piece for John Ogdon. Recently I arranged it as a duo for Anthony Goldstone and Caroline Clemmow. I think it sounds better for two pianos." For those of you who are familiar with George Lloyd's music, you will need no introduction. For those of you who are not, suffice it to say here we have a disc of big, tuneful, Romantic piano music.

George Lloyd writes: "During the summer of 1972 I wrote a number of piano pieces. On the title page of "The Road through Samarkand" I added, "...with burning hearts they danced their way from Calais to Calcutta, but what did they find?". I had been watching the yellow-robed, shaven-headed, chanting, bell-ringers dancing up and down Oxford Street, London; this was at the time when Eastern cults and cheap drugs were persuading young experimenters to trek half-way round the world in the hope of finding new salvation. I pictured them dancing joyfully across Asia ever nearer their final disillusion....The largest and most developed piece on this recording is "An African Shrine," written for John Ogdon in 1966. Violence and revolution in Africa were darkening everyone's hopes. I subtitled the piece as follows: scene: A lonely road. A deserted shrine. A woman kneels weeping. As the armies of the world pass by, she prays."