George Lloyd - George Lloyd: St. Antony and the Beggar (1972) - Score for solo piano

As a violinist, Lloyd was drawn to stringed instruments rather than the keyboard. His wife, Nancy had a very different attitude to the piano, however. Having been brought up listening to records of Alfred Cortot, among other great pianists, she had developed a genuine passion for the instrument. She was always urging her husband to write a piano concerto, but it was not until the early 1960s that those years of persuasion paid off and Lloyd wrote Scapegoat, the first of his series of four piano concertos. Now the composer had overcome his previous aversion to the keyboard, as he put it, 'Suddenly, everything I thought of, I thought in terms of the piano'. From this dramatic change of heart emerged several works for solo piano. St. Antony and the Beggar (1972) juxtaposes a variety of styles and moods, from dark introspection and violence outbursts to sequences of prayerful hope. A lively waltz also recurs in the varied and engaging narrative. After a stormy climax is reached, the closing section is serene and spacious.