Lyrita released the first discs of George Lloyd’s symphonies on disc back in the early 1980s, with LPs of the Fourth, Fifth and Eighth (reissued on CD in 2007). The conductor, Edward Downes, undertook their first performances as well as those of the Sixth, Seventh and Tenth Symphonies, and this latest disc couples the former two of these in their broadcast premieres.

Resident near Sherborne in the 1950s and ’60s, Lloyd wrote on a part-time basis but managed to complete several major works. The present two symphonies make for a pointed contrast in all respects. The Sixth (1956) is the shortest of the cycle, its outer movements being deft takes on sonata and rondo designs so their immediacy of ideas is thrown into relief by their formal sophistication, while the central Adagio focuses on a cor anglais melody of winsome poise.

Inspired by the Greek legend of Proserpine, the much larger Seventh Symphony (1959) could hardly be more different. It proceeds from an initial movement of a restraint belied by quirky ostinato rhythms and speculative harmony that takes on increasing volatility towards the close, through a central Largo whose eloquent melodic contours and ethereal orchestration make it Lloyd’s most affecting symphonic movement, to a finale that pursues an agitated course to a powerful climax then an epilogue whose anguish is more telling for its enfolding inwardness.

The work gave rise to much soul-searching but ultimately earned praise from those otherwise unreceptive to this composer. Downes endows it with unstinting drama, and is no less inside its diverting predecessor. Lloyd’s own recordings on Albany are well played with more spacious sound but the extra panache here is unarguable. Maybe Downes’s broadcasts of the Ninth and Tenth Symphonies will emerge; even that of the Eighth, which began the Lloyd revival 40 years ago.