The score to Malcolm Arnold’s Larch Trees

Larch Trees is a tone poem for orchestra composed in 1943 when Malcolm Arnold was only 22, though it did not receive its first public performance until 1984, conducted by Ruth Gipps. The 9-minute piece is lightly scored – pairs of woodwinds and four horns alongside strings – and describes a desolate landscape, with sparse textures evoking Arnold’s admiration for Sibelius. The piece builds to a craggy, monumental climax; as it subsides the opening material returns over shimmering strings.