Berkeley’s religious works

Continuing their release of the remarkable Itter Broadcast Collection, Lyrita Records have just brought out a new CD [REAM1129] of three major Berkeley religious works, in performances which were originally broadcast on BBC Radio Three and have never been commercially available before.

The first work on the new disc is the Stabat Mater (1947), performed by soloists of the Ambrosian Singers with the English Chamber Orchestra conducted by Norman Del Mar, in the Friends’ Meeting House, London, in 1965. This is of particular interest in the light of our own, Lennox Berkeley Society, CD of the same work recorded by Delphian with the Marian Consort and the Berkeley Ensemble conducted by David Wordsworth. John Quinn has a written a fascinating review, comparing both recordings, on the Music Web International website. The second work on the Lyrita disc is the cantata, Batter My Heart, Three-Person’d God (1962), with the soprano Felicity Harrison, the organist Donald Hunt, the BBC Northern Singers and members of the BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra conducted by the composer, and broadcast in 1963; this was the work’s UK premiere, the first performance having taken place in New York with the Riverside Church Choir, which commissioned it.

The third work is the world premiere of the Magnificat (1967-8), with the combined Choirs of St Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Abbey and Westminster Cathedral, and the London Symphony Orchestra, again conducted by Berkeley himself, in St Paul’s Cathedral, and broadcast in 1968.

All three broadcasts were recorded off transmission by the enterprising founder of Lyrita, Richard Itter, on professional equipment he installed at his home in Burnham, where he was able to receive a good signal from the BBC’s Wrotham transmitter. These are just three of some 1500 British works – Prom concerts, premières, operas, symphonies and chamber music – which he recorded in the years 1952-1996 – broadcasts which would otherwise have been lost to history. Everything was initially recorded on magnetic tape, but up to 1955 particularly important performances were transferred to acetate disc. These fragile records were never played and have remained in excellent condition – like most of the tapes which make up the majority of the collection. Richard Itter died in 2014 and that same year the Lyrita Recorded Edition Trust, which he created and endowed, began to transfer this priceless archive, and has now put in place formal agreements with the BBC and the Musicians Union to enable the public release of items from it. Among the seven Berkeley titles which will appear over the next few years are four broadcast premières: of the one-act opera Castaway, with the English Opera Group conducted by Meredith Davies in 1967; of the Cello Concerto, in the performance by Moray Welsh with the Hallé Orchestra conducted by James Loughran in 1983; of the Dialogue for Cello and Orchestra, played by Maurice Gendron and the English Chamber Orchestra conducted by Raymond Leppard in 1971; and of Voices of the Night with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra conducted by Lennox Berkeley himself at the Three Choirs Festival in Hereford in 1973. The archive also includes three additional Berkeley rarities which are scheduled for transfer to digital format at some time in the future: the grand opera Nelson, in the concert performance conducted by Elgar Howarth at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in 1988; the biblical opera Ruth with the BBC Northern Singers and the BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra conducted by Steuart Bedford in 1968; and another, later, broadcast of Voices of the Night performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Adrian Boult at the Proms in 1975. The whole catalogue can be found – and CDs bought – from the Lyrita website.