Alwyn’s Third Symphony had its premiere at the Royal Festival Hall on 10 October 1956. The BBC Symphony Orchestra was conducted by Beecham, who took over the project from the indisposed Barbirolli. Alwyn recalled that ‘Sir Thomas was punctilious in the preparation of the score and gave a remarkable performance full of fire and vitality. I accompanied him to the artists’ room after taking my bow. He looked old and exhausted, but his strange rabbity eyes were brightly sparkling as he lolled on the sofa and, with a characteristic stroking of the beard, he said: “They tell me I can’t conduct modern music. Well, this should learn them!” ’ Alwyn’s recollection of ‘the press unusually unanimous in approval’ is a little misleading. The critic Charles Reid, under the heading ‘An angry new symphony’ could not ‘put this forward as a great work. The final pages give it away. Alwyn’s attempts hereabouts to achieve a calm, broad apotheosis fall wide of the mark.’ Nevertheless, Reid thought, ‘I have never known a new English symphony, except Vaughan Williams’ No. 8, go by so quickly and on the whole so entertainingly. The music’s mood most of the time is brassy, brisk, brusque – even angry, in a winsome way.’ More positively, another newspaper reported that ‘Alwyn’s reputation will be enhanced by this […] for it is positive in feeling and cogent in argument.’

Percy Cater’s review noted