William Alwyn's music has appeared here twice before - both on Lyrita recordings, and here we have a third one featuring his harp concerto Lyra Angelica. In a review of this album (in its CD form) on Musicweb, Colin Clarke wrote:
"Finally, Alwyn’s Concerto for Harp and String Orchestra, called Lyra Angelica. Dating from the same period as the Autumn Legend was similarly inspired by poetry, this time that of the 17th-century English metaphysicals. Quotations from Giles Fletcher’s epic Christ’s Victorie and Triumph (1610) head each of the four movements (two Adagios, a Moderato and an Allegro jubiloso-Andante con moto). The première was given by the legendary Sidonie Goossens with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, again with Sir Malcolm Sargent at the helm, on the opening Promenade concert of the 1954 season.
"There is a predominantly meditational aspect to Lyra Angelica that makes it appealing indeed. The delicacy of the second movement is most affecting, the intimacy very moving. The Moderato provides contrast with more determined lines from the strings, the finale with its swirls of harp-inflected colour. Osian Ellis is the perfect soloist, the recording of the strings everything one has come to expect from this company. Of all the Alwyn discs from Lyrita, this is surely the most special."
The sleeve notes for this album can be read by clicking on the scan below.
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