George Lloyd from Albany (available until 2nd Jan 1970) 1 to 15 of 24 results

40% discount on recordings of George Lloyd from Albany Records.

Offer available until 26 November 2023.

George Walter Selwyn Lloyd was born in St Ives, Cornwall, of part Welsh, part American ancestry and grew up in a very musical family. His father, William A. C. Lloyd, was a retired naval officer, an accomplished amateur flautist and an Italian opera aficionado, writing a biography of Bellini. His mother played the violin, viola and piano. Both parents were leading members of the St Ives Arts Club and their house was a regular weekly venue for chamber music, so the young composer grew up with music all around him. His maternal grandmother was the American painter Frances (Fanny) Powell who had been an opera singer, and was an early pioneer of the St Ives artists' colony.

He became a student at Trinity College London. His first symphony, written at the age of 19, was premiered in 1932 by the Penzance Orchestral Society and was performed again in 1933 by the Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra, with the composer conducting on both occasions. A second symphony had its premiere in 1935 and was soon followed by a third. George and his father William formed The New English Opera Company in 1935, with the intention of establishing a school of English opera. George’s first opera, Iernin, with a libretto by his father, was performed in 1934 in Penzance, before being transferred to the Lyceum Theatre, London, where it had an unusually long run. His second opera, The Serf, was staged by Vladimir Rosing at Covent Garden in 1938.

When the Second World War ended, his wife took him to Switzerland to help him recuperate from severe physical and mental trauma. In 1946 Lloyd resumed composition and wrote two symphonies and the opera John Socman, the last commissioned for the 1951 Festival of Britain. Lloyd's health deteriorated further, and in 1952, he took up full-time residence in Dorset. For 20 years, in addition to intermittent composition, he was a market gardener and grew mushrooms and carnations. He composed regularly from 4:30 AM to 7:30 AM, before the start of the rest of his working day. During this period he continued to write in a tonal, melodic style, contrary to the prevailing climate of modernist and avant garde styles.

In 1972 he sold his market garden business and moved to London to "pick up the pieces of my musical life" as he put it, and began an extraordinary and productive Indian summer. A number of his scores were accepted for broadcast by the BBC, and he went on to collaborate with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and to record 7 of his 12 symphonies and 3 of his piano concertos with that orchestra. He was a very early adopter of digital technology, and established his own recording, production, publishing and distribution company, making 22 CD recordings in all.

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Albany TROY498
Hybrid SACD (1 disc)

Albany TROY458
Hybrid SACD (1 disc)

Albany TROY450
CD (1 disc)

Albany TROY316
CD (1 disc)

Albany TROY248
CD (1 disc)

Albany TROY230
CD (1 disc)

Albany TROY200
CD (1 disc)

Albany TROY170
CD (1 disc)

Albany TROY131
CD (1 disc)

Albany TROY121-23
CD (3 discs)

Albany TROY100
CD (1 disc)

Albany TROY090
CD (1 disc)

Albany TROY060
Hybrid SACD (1 disc)

Albany TROY057
CD (1 disc)

Albany TROY055
CD (1 disc)

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