Lloyd's works for violin were written in the late 1970s and were the outcome of his renewed interest in the instrument. As a result of his war injuries he had been unable to play: the muscles and nerves of his left hand had become partly uncontrollable and remained that way until his general health improved many years later. For over 30 years he had almost no contact with musicians, with the exception of pianist John Ogdon, and his need for direct contact with sound other than what was in his head led him to take his fiddle out of its case at to see what would happen. He said himself that playing once again became an obsession, and despite the great difficulties in trying to regain an adequate technique, love for the violin completely devoured him. The result was a considerable amount of violin music, much of it unaccompanied, which he later destroyed.
This Air for Violin is a simple cantilena, reminding us that the violin is above all an incomparable singing instrument. This was Tasmin Little’s first commercial recording, made in 1989.