Saracinesco was written in memory of the Cornish artist Peter Lanyon (1918-1964), is a reflection on his work, on time and space, and also on the ethereal elements of music.

Saracinesco is the name of a series of paintings by Lanyon, who brought together images of his native English country with those of the Italian town that was his virtual second home. He developed a fascination for viewing the countryside from above, and died tragically in a gliding accident.

Standford says: 'This single movement piece for large orchestra derives its title from paintings I have long admired by the Cornish artist Peter Lanyon. My work was completed in 1966, and seems to summarise several aspects of my work up to that time. I had developed a liking for long melodic strands that weave among detached accompaniments. I felt a need at that time to express myself in strongly marked rhythmic terms, and it is the central section of Sracinesco that has a feverish excitement about it. The opening grows toward this entrap piece, and the closing section, with its exposed solo piano figures, is intended to convey an intense peacefulness - for both myself and the world about me. Saracinesco is to me like the growth and death of a day, or of the seasons, or, with strength to begin and peace to end, like the heroic life itself, condensed into barely twenty minutes.'

This work started life in the 1960s and was revised in 2008.