Alwyn Sym No. 3 - R Hickox, LSO (1994) [Philidor; FLAC]

It was William Alwyn's fate to be considered a first rate film composer, at a time when film composers weren't usually taken seriously in the UK. And while there was much to be said for the stereotype, it was unfortunate for Alwyn who was a dedicated, hard-working musician with over 100 classical compositions to his credit by the 1930s. (Much of this he later destroyed after evolving his own angular and distinctive style, claiming it was too derivative of Impressionism.)

Alwyn's big break came when one of his film scores was being recorded in his presence by the great conductor, John Barbirolli. Barbirolli's attitude, according to the composer, was dismissive of both himself and the music at first, but as the rehearsal wore on, the conductor became increasingly engrossed in the score. When it was over, he approached Alwyn, shook his hand, told him it was a fine piece of music, and invited him to dinner. Over dinner, he inquired whether Alwyn was working on anything more classical in an orchestral vein at the time. The composer mentioned that he was in the middle of his First Symphony, at which point Barbirolli said, "When you complete it, we will give its premiere."

So it proved, and Barbirolli remained a champion of his. In fact, he was supposed to conduct the premiere of the Third Symphony (1954) as well, but fell ill. The first performance went to Thomas Beecham, instead. It proved a great success, though in post-war Britain that was muted by high-level agreements among the musical hierarchy to emphasize only Britten and a group of young serialists in concert and on radio, so as to be taken seriously by the European avant-garde.

Alwyn, like a few other composers before him, loved and excelled at musical games; and his Third Symphony, while a very serious work, includes these, too. The most obvious is that of the 12 tones in a modern scale, the first movement uses 8, while the second movement only uses the remaining 4. The finale utilizes all 12. Conventional development doesn't exist. Instead, Alwyn, like Rubbra and Arnell (both from later generations), prefers continuous transformation of his material, occasionally glancing over at the content of another movement, only to twist it somehow into a new shape.

Transfers are made at 768 kBits/s, directly from the disc.

A bio's enclosed. You can find all my classical uploads by searching on Philidor, or just looking in this regularly updated thread:

https://kat.cr/community/show/philidor-s-classical-stuff/