WILLIAM ALWYN (1905-1985)

 

Orchestral Music

 

Overture to a Masque (1940)

Concerto Grosso No. 1 in B flat major (1943)

Pastoral Fantasia (1939)

Five Preludes (1927)

Tragic Interlude (1936)

Autumn Legend (1954)

Suite of Scottish Dances (1946)

 

Philip Dukes - viola

Rachael Pankhurst - cor anglais

 

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra / David Lloyd-Jones

 

The Five Preludes are here presented in their world première recording.

 

William Alwyn composed some fifty works for the orchestra, including five symphonies, a sinfonietta, concertos for flute, oboe, violin, piano, harp, three concerti grossi, and many other descriptive shorter pieces. The seven works on this recording show Alwyn responding in his own individual way to the various challenges presented to him in writing for the orchestra, from the early Five Preludes, in which one can sense already his keen ear for orchestral colour, through to the self-assured scoring of his maturity in the evocative Autumn Legend.

 

Naxos 8570704