Recordings of Lennox Berkeley's music
500 Years of Music
- Variation on an Elizabethan Theme (Sellinger's Round)
Performed by the Guildhall String Ensemble
Magnificat
- I Sing of a Maiden
Performed by the Great St. Mary's Choir & Samuel Hayes (conductor)
Lennox Berkeley: String Quartets Nos. 1, 2 and 3
- String Quartet no. 1 (op. 6)
- String Quartet no. 2 (op. 15)
- String Quartet no. 3 (op. 76)
Performed by the Maggini Quartet
Hail Bright Cecilia 2
Format: CD
Label: Musicians' Benevolent Fund
Release date: November 2007
Available from: MBF Trading Ltd, Wrexham Tel: 01948 831074
This CD features a selection of anthems commissioned by the Musician's Benevolent Fund for the Festival of St. Cecilia.
- Thou Hast Made Me (op. 55 part 1)
Performed by the Voces Cantabiles, Gary Sieling (organ) & Ronald Corp (conductor)
Divertimentos & Sinfoniettas by Tippett, Britten, Arnold, Berkeley and Rawsthorne
These re-issues from Lyrita make a most welcome programme. The playing by the ECO is, of course, balanced and shapeley, as well as having clarity of texture and instrumental colour. The Berkeley work is the Sinfonietta Op. 34 dating from 1950 and forms an important addition to the currently available recorded repetoire. In the first movement (Allegro) ideas are presented and developed in succinct manner, but it goes together really well and the recapitulation has a particular elegance. The second movement begins with a lovely, tender Lento which gradually moves to a climax and a halt before a contemplative passage brings in the sprightly but suave Allegro non troppo. This is essential, high-level Berkeley. There is much to enjoy in all the works of this collection. Particular favourites are the Lament from Tippett's Divertimento entitled "Selinger's Round", and the Rondo (unusually the first movement) of the fine Divertimento by Alan Rawsthorne. The CD includes excellent notes by Michael Kennedy and Robert Layton.
Christopher Daly
- Sinfonietta (op. 34)
Performed by the English Chamber Orchestra & Norman Del Mar (conductor)
The British Double Bass
- Introduction & Allegro (op. 80)
Performed by Leon Bosch (double bass) & Sung-Suk Kang (piano)
Dennis Brain: Britten, Berkeley & Bach
- Trio (op. 44)
Performed by Dennis Brain (horn), Colin Horsley (piano) & Manoug Parikian (violin)
Lennox Berkeley: Piano Concerto in B flat, Concerto for Two Pianos
- Concerto for Piano (op. 29)
- Concerto for Two Pianos (op. 30)
Performed by the New Philharmonia Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Norman Del Mar (conductor), Nicholas Braithwaite (conductor), David Wilde (piano), Garth Beckett (piano) & Boyd McDonald (piano)
Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2
- Symphony no. 1 (op. 16)
- Symphony no. 2 (op. 51)
Performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Norman Del Mar (conductor) & Nicholas Braithwaite (conductor)
The English Anthem Collection
The Lennox Berkeley work appears as track 11 on disc four of this four CD set.
- Thou Hast Made Me (op. 55 part 1)
Performed by the Choir of Magdalen College Oxford & John Harper (conductor)