David Wordsworth meets Lennox Berkeley

The Addison Singers was fortunate enough to have been awarded a grant of £250 from the Lennox Berkeley Society towards the cost of the Spring Concert at St Michael & All Angels Church, Turnham Green, London, on 5th April, which included a performance of Berkeley’s Four Poems of St Teresa of Avila. This beautiful piece, one of Berkeley’s very best works, was sung by Rebecca Stockdale, the stunning alto soloist in the Addison Oratorio Choir’s performance of Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle a couple of years ago. I’m very grateful to Rebecca for agreeing to take the Four Poems into her repertoire. After hearing her sing I knew that hers was the voice for this piece, originally championed and recorded by no less a performer than Kathleen Ferrier.

Sir Lennox Berkeley was the first ‘real composer’ I met. At the age of sixteen I was completely fascinated by one of his piano pieces that had been set for my Grade 8 exam, and I had the nerve to write and tell him so! I certainly didn’t expect to receive a reply. Not only did I get one, but I also had an invitation to visit him in London, which I subsequently did on several occasions, to talk about his music and the music of some of the composers he knew – Britten, Poulenc, Ravel and Stravinsky amongst others. Many years later I was fortunate enough to be appointed Chair of the Lennox Berkeley Society and I have always done what I can to promote the work of this still neglected and wonderful composer.

It is fitting that the Addison Singers’ concert also featured music by the composer Lennox loved above all, Mozart (his Coronation Mass and Regina Coeli), as well as music by one of Berkeley’s most illustrious pupils, the late Sir John Tavener (If Ye Love Me, In One Single Moment and The Lord’s Prayer).