George Lloyd: Seven Extracts from The Serf for Violin & Piano Ruth Rogers & Simon Callaghan

• George Lloyd (1913 - 1998): Seven extracts from George Lloyd's Opera 'The Serf':
• 1 Lloyd: Seven extracts from George Lloyd's Opera 'The Serf': I. The Outlaw 05:20
• 2 Lloyd: Seven extracts from George Lloyd's Opera 'The Serf': II. Lament 03:33
• 3 Lloyd: Seven extracts from George Lloyd's Opera 'The Serf': III. Woodlands 04:04
• 4 Lloyd: Seven extracts from George Lloyd's Opera 'The Serf': IV. Ascalon 04:02
• 5 Lloyd: Seven extracts from George Lloyd's Opera 'The Serf': V. March 02:29
• 6 Lloyd: Seven extracts from George Lloyd's Opera 'The Serf': VI. 'Ah, for the blue of Sicily' 04:40
• 7 Lloyd: Seven extracts from George Lloyd's Opera 'The Serf': VII. Odin's Hung 04:01
• Total Runtime 28:09

Info for George Lloyd: Seven Extracts from The Serf for Violin & Piano

Despite his facility in playing the violin and the importance he attached to his lessons with Albert Sammons, Lloyd was relatively slow to compose works for his own instrument. It was not until 1970 that Lloyd wrote Violin Concerto No. 1, his first piece with a leading role for his own instrument, but this achievement seemed to stir his enthusiasm, and during the next seven years, he completed a number of pieces for violin and piano, a fully-fledged sonata, and a second concerto. The Seven Extracts from The Serf for violin and piano (1974) were published in 2024 and are here recorded for the first time. (Paul Conway)

For those who associated the composer George Lloyd with his output of symphonies, it will probably be refreshing to hear music that he wrote for his own instrument, the violin. Lloyd began to learn the violin from the age of five, and he was a pupil of the distinguished violinist Albert Sammons for six years. He later 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.’

It therefore comes as something of a surprise to discover how late in his career it was when he started to write for his own instrument. Even then, these were Seven Extracts from ‘The Serf’, his second opera, rather than music conceived primarily for the medium. These are included on the second disc of this set. As so often with British operas, there was no revival after its initial run, despite its artistic success and favourable reviews.

These pieces date from 1974. The following year Lloyd composed the Lament, Air and Dance. Unusually the first movement is in the form of a chaconne, and draws inspiration from some of the great examples of the form from the past, specifically the Chaconne in G minor attributed to Tomaso Antonio Vitale (1663-1745), which the composer greatly admired calling it ‘one of the greatest pieces ever written for the violin’. Lloyd’s example is elegant, but substantial at nearly 15 minutes duration. The expressive middle movement is an excellent contrast and final movement (Dance) effectively provides a counterbalance to the seriousness of the opening movement. The Sonata for Violin and Piano dates from 1978, and is in a single weighty movement of nearly 30 minutes in length. It begins with the piano stating a rhythmic idea which leads to an expansive theme shared between both instruments This is the principal subject of the sonata and it recurs at various points throughout the score. A passage marked ‘moderato’ provides what seems to be the scherzo section followed by a statement of the main subject. The final section draws on the middle section, but rhythmically altered, and the work ends with an impressive final statement of the main material.

The two duos, Tasmin Little and Martin Roscoe and Ruth Rogers and Simon Callaghan are beyond reproach in their display of virtuosity and expressiveness, which is always at the service of the music and is never self-indulgent. The recordings were made 35 years apart, but the quality is uniformly excellent. Admirers of Lloyd’s music should not hesitate; a splendid release. (Martyn Strachan)

Ruth Rogers, violin
Simon Callaghan, piano

Ruth Rogers
Born in London in 1979, Ruth Rogers began violin lessons at the age of five. In 1997 she was awarded a Foundation Scholarship to the Royal College of Music to study with Itzhak Rashkovsky, where she won many major prizes and awards. Ruth graduated in 2001 with First Class Honours and was awarded the Tagore Gold medal – the College’s highest accolade – by HRH The Prince of Wales. Further study followed in the Netherlands with Herman Krebbers.

As a soloist, Ruth’s playing has been described as “not calculated in any sense, her performance style and technique so assured that the music flows as a natural consequence of innermost understanding. Ruth Rogers must be one of the most gifted young violinists in Britain.” (Musical Opinion.) Winner of the prestigious Manoug Parikian Award and chosen as a 2004 Young Artist by the Tillett Trust, Ruth also reached the Finals of the YCAT competition, Royal Overseas League, and the BBC Radio 2 Young Musician of the Year. She gave her London debut recitals at the Wigmore Hall and the Purcell Room in 2003 and has also appeared as a soloist at the Royal Albert Hall, St John’s Smith Square and many other venues.

From 2008 until 2012 Ruth was the co-leader of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. Ruth also performs with the John Wilson Orchestra. In March 2015 Ruth was appointed as one of the Leaders of the London Mozart Players. She regularly guest leads the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Aurora Chamber Orchestra and has appeared in principal roles with the Hallé, Philharmonia and RLPO. She has led orchestras under the batons of such maestros as Lorin Maazel, Daniele Gatti, Sir Colin Davis and Sakari Oramo, and has performed concertos with the City of London Sinfonia, City of Oxford Orchestra, London Strings, and New London Soloists Orchestra.

As chamber musician, Ruth has performed at the Aldeburgh and Bath Festivals with the Tate Ensemble and with pianist John Lill in Shostakovich’s piano quintet. She is a member of the Iuventus String Quartet and the Aquinas Piano Trio and has appeared at the Wigmore Hall with the Nash Ensemble. In February 2009 Ruth reached the final of an International Duo Competition with Martin Cousin – the Franz Schubert and Modern Music International Competition which took place in Graz, Austria. They were one of five duos in the final, chosen from thirty-seven participating duos.

Ruth was chosen personally by Lorin Maazel to perform with the tenor Andrea Bocelli in a series of concerts, which has led to television and radio broadcasts and further concerts worldwide at such venues as the Pyramids in Cairo, the Acropolis in Athens, and the Piazza del Campo in Siena. They performed together at the Royal Albert Hall with the English Chamber Orchestra for the Classical Brit Awards. Ruth has given recitals at the Brighton, Buxton, Harrogate and Warwick Festivals thanks to the Tillett Trust. She has given recitals with Martin Cousin in Indonesia and Thailand.

In 2006 Ruth played to orphans, refugees, malaria patients and land-mine victims on the Thai-Burma border and in 2008 she went back there again with the Iuventus Quartet. In February 2006, Ruth’s debut recital CD was released. Recorded with pianist Sarah Nicolls, it features works by Handel, Elgar, Ginastera, Massenet, Fauré, Kreisler and Kroll. The CDs are £10 each and you can order copies by emailing info@ruthrogers.net with your name, address, telephone number, and the number of copies requested. Proceeds from the CD sales will go to help those in need on the Thailand-Burma border. Ruth has also recorded Piazzolla’s ‘History of the Tango’ with guitarist Morgan Szymanski, and released several discs as a member of the Aquinas Piano Trio.

Simon Callaghan
performs internationally as a soloist and chamber musician, in parallel with a highly successful career as a recording artist. A favourite performer at the internationally-renowned Husum Festival of Piano Rarities in Germany, Callaghan’s recent sell-out concert was praised by VAN Magazine as a “cleverly curated recital full of discoveries” and by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung as “technically brilliant”. Callaghan has developed a wide following and appears on a regular basis in the UK’s major concert halls, and on tours to Asia, North America and Europe. Recital partners have included Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Nicholas Daniel, Adrian Brendel, Feng Ning, Samuel West, Prunella Scales and Timothy West. BBC Young Musician of the Year Finalist Coco Tomita and Callaghan have a successful duo partnership which saw their first record released in 2022 on Orchid Classics. He is also a founding member of the London Piano Quartet, joining colleagues from the renowned Piatti Quartet to showcase the repertoire for piano quartet with a particular focus on revivifying works that have fallen into obscurity.

Simon Callaghan’s distinguished and eclectic discography includes recordings for Hyperion, Nimbus and Lyrita. He has a strong profile on BBC Radio3 and on a variety of streaming platforms, his most recent single on Apple Music with Coco Tomita surpassing 1 million streams in the first month of its release. He is a strong social media enthusiast, using it as a form of promotion for classical music in general but seeing it as a particular tool in his advocacy of the rare and unexplored.

Callaghan’s broad repertoire encompasses the standard works of the 19th and 20th centuries and increasingly concentrates on much that is little known, examples including Bernhard Scholz, Josef Rheinberger and Carl Reinecke. A cornerstone of his work is his commitment to British music, and he has begun a series on Lyrita, recording world premieres of British concertos with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Callaghan has also made first recordings of the complete piano music by Rebecca Clarke, George Dyson and William Busch. He has recorded four albums for Hyperion’s celebrated The Romantic Piano Concerto series. His first disc for Hyperion, with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Martyn Brabbins, formed part of his PhD at the Royal Northern College of Music and was praised by BBC Radio 3’s Andrew McGregor: “I have nothing but praise for the performances... impressive pianism”.

In 2020, Simon recorded L’histoire du Babar with actor Miriam Margolyes. The album received five stars from The Independent, reviewer Michael Church commenting that: “here, thanks to Harry Potter actor Miriam Margolyes’s artistry and Simon Callaghan’s excellent pianism, is Poulenc’s delightful musical response. And as I listened to this recording, I found the original drawings reappearing in my mind with all their detail intact – extraordinary. It lasts just 30 minutes, but my god does it resonate.” Simon Callaghan’s reputation and experience in chamber music led to his appointment as Artistic Director at London’s celebrated Conway Hall, only the sixth incumbent since the founding of the series in 1887. He is Professor of Piano at the Royal Northern College of Music, and was elected a Steinway Artist in 2012.

Booklet for George Lloyd: Seven Extracts from The Serf for Violin & Piano