Recordings of Lennox Berkeley's music

Kathleen Ferrier: 20th Century British Treasures

Format: CD
Label: Somm Recordings
Release date: December 2020
Catalogue no: ARIADNE 5010

SOMM Recordings’ acclaimed series of re-mastered recitals by the fondly remembered singer continues with Kathleen Ferrier: 20th Century British Treasures. This features recordings made for Decca and the BBC between 1946 and 1953 and includes a previously unpublished recording of Ferrier’s passionate performance of Lennox Berkeley’s Four Poems of St Teresa of Ávila. ... Sir Thomas Allen, the distinguished interpreter of British song and Trustee of the Kathleen Ferrier Awards, contributes an extensive booklet commentary. Pianist Julian Jacobson, son of composer Maurice Jacobson, whose melancholy but sensuous The Song of Songs is heard in a 1947 BBC broadcast, also provides a personal poignant note on Ferrier’s championing of his father’s work. The music is sung with all the passion and tenderness we have come to expect from that glorious contralto voice, confirming Our Kaff’s reputation as a warm-hearted, vivacious, modest and courageous woman with a wicked sense of humour.

Review by John Pitt, New Classics

• Four Poems of St. Teresa of Avila (op. 27)

Kathleen Ferrier and Sir John Barbirolli

Format: CD
Label: Barbirolli Society
Release date: March 2015
Catalogue no: SJB 1080

Lennox Berkeley had written Four Poems of St Teresa of Avila in 1947 for contralto and string orchestra, expressly for Ferrier. As it was his first solo vocal work, Berkeley consulted with Ferrier during its composition, recalling that ‘she put herself at the service of the music.’ She gave the first broadcast performance at the end of April 1948 with the Arnold Goldsbrough Orchestra, and this subsequent performance from November 1949 under Barbirolli reveals the insight of both artists with music of their British contemporaries, more so perhaps as Ferrier never recorded the work commercially. (Synopsis by Barbirolli Society)

• Four Poems of St. Teresa of Avila (op. 27)

Performed by the Hallé Orchestra, John Barbirolli (conductor) & Kathleen Ferrier (contralto)

Kathleen Ferrier and Friends

Format: CD
Label: Pearl
Release date: February 2006
Catalogue no: GEM0229

• Four Poems of St. Teresa of Avila (op. 27)

Performed by the Hallé Orchestra, John Barbirolli (conductor) & Kathleen Ferrier (contralto)

Lennox & Michael Berkeley: The Berkeley Edition, Vol. 5

Format: CD & Digital download
Label: Chandos Records
Release date: January 2005
Catalogue no: CHAN 10265

• Four Poems of St. Teresa of Avila (op. 27)
• Concerto for Piano (op. 29)

Performed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Richard Hickox (conductor), Howard Shelley (piano) & Catherine Wyn Rogers (contralto)

A Lennox Berkeley Centenary Album

Format: CD
Label: EMI
Release date: August 2003
Catalogue no: 585 1382

Track 32 is the Polka (op. 5/1) played by Cyril Smith and Phyllis Sellick (2 pianos, 3 hands)

• Polka (op. 5 part 1)
• Six Preludes (op. 23)
• Four Poems of St. Teresa of Avila (op. 27)
• Three Greek Songs (op. 38)
• Trio (op. 44)
• Five Poems (op. 53, W. H. Auden)
• The Lord is My Shepherd (op. 91 part 1)
• I Sing of a Maiden

Performed by the Collegium Musicum Londinii, Choir of King's College Cambridge, Dennis Brain (horn), Colin Horsley (piano), Pamela Bowden (contralto), John Minchinton (conductor), Manoug Parikian (violin), Ernest Lush (piano), Thomas Hemsley (baritone), Phyllis Sellick, Cyril Smith, Andrew Davis, David Willcocks (conductor), Christopher Hughes, Stephen Cleobury (conductor) & Thomas Rose

Kathleen Ferrier: Songs My Father Taught Me

Format: CD
Label: Gala
Release date: June 2000
Catalogue no: GL 318

The Four Poems of St. Teresa of Avila was written in the spring of 1947 for Kathleen Ferrier, who gave the first performance. This CD features the recording of that first performance with orchestra on 14 April 1948.

• Four Poems of St. Teresa of Avila (op. 27)

Performed by Kathleen Ferrier (contralto) & Arnold Goldsbrough (conductor)