George Lloyd: Sonata (1978) - Score For Violin & Piano

Description

George Lloyd started to learn the violin at the age of five and he was a pupil of the violinist Albert Sammons for six years. In his youth, Lloyd's talent as an instrumentalist allowed him to participate in local musical events from formal concerts to more convivial gatherings: a 1930 newspaper report of a 'social in the Zennor schoolroom' observed that 'Mr George Lloyd played the violin and dancing was indulged in'. Looking back on his formative influences, Lloyd singled out Sammons as having the most lasting effect on his burgeoning creativity, identifying the latter's 'instinctive, freely expressive playing' as having a direct bearing on the kind of music he began to write. Completed in 1978, the Sonata for violin and piano unfolds in a single, unbroken span. It begins with a sustained, rhythmic idea on the keyboard and expands into a broad, spacious theme shared between both instruments. This is the sonata's main subject and it reappears at key points throughout the score. The rhythmic motif reappears in the piano, generating a fast section. Following a slackening in tempo, there appears, at the heart of the piece, a 'moderato' passage containing scherzo-like elements, which is at once spirited and yearning and is rounded off by an appearance of the slow, expansive melody uttered softy in the violin's higher reaches. The sonata's final portion is heralded by dynamic chordal flourishes on the violin. The quirky, yet wistful material from the 'moderato' returns in a new rhythmical guise and the movement ends impressively with the piano's bravura passagework setting off the violin's soaring, full-throated rendering of the sonata's motto theme.