Recordings of Lennox Berkeley's music

Lennox Berkeley: Chamber Works

Format: CD & Digital download
Label: Resonus Classics
Release date: March 2015
Catalogue no: RES10149

Following their acclaimed debut recording (Clarion Call - RES10127), the Berkeley Ensemble returns with a programme of chamber works by the British composer Lennox Berkeley, one of the two composers (father and son) after whom the group gets its name.

Featuring a number of world premiere recordings, the ensemble presents a selection of works that covers most of Berkeley’s creative life from the early Francophile clarinet 'Sonatine' written in Paris while a student of Nadia Boulanger to the inventive 'Introduction and Allegro' for double bass and piano. Also featured are the 'Three solo pieces' for viola and the large scale 'String Trio' Op. 19 and 'Sextet' Op. 47 for clarinet, horn and string quartet, and the emotive miniature 'In Memoriam Igor Stravinsky'. (Synopsis by Resonus)

This recording is supported by a grant from the Lennox Berkeley Society.

• Introduction & Allegro (op. 11)
• String Trio (op. 19)
• Sextet (op. 47)
• In Memoriam Igor Stravinsky
• Piece
• Sonatine
• Three Pieces

Performed by the Berkeley Ensemble

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)

Nocturnes

Format: Digital download
Label: Pro Studio Masters
Release date: March 2015

Since the beginning of time, the night and its mysteries have inspired poets and musicians. Rupert Charlesworth, one of the UK’s most promising young tenors, is joined at the piano by Edwige Herchenroder for this recital that includes English songs, French melodies and Lieder, all about the nighttime. Ranging from the known (Schubert, Brahms, Fauré) to the lesser known (Bax, Finzi, Berkeley), Charlesworth and Herchenroder embark on this fascinating nocturnal promenade through diverse aesthetics, troubling atmospheres and profoundly contrasting emotions; their ode to the night. Includes no. 4. 'Eyes look into the well' and no. 5. 'Carry her over the water' from 'Five Poems' op. 53, and no. 5. 'Silver' from 'Five Poems' op. 26. (Synopsis by Pro Studio Masters)

• Five Songs (op. 26, Walter de la Mare)
• Five Poems (op. 53, W. H. Auden)

Performed by Rupert Charlesworth (tenor) & Edwige Herchenroder (piano)

Nowell sing we: Contemporary Carols, Volume 2

Format: Digital download
Label: Resonus Classics
Release date: November 2014
Catalogue no: RES10138

Following on from the universal critical acclaim of their first album with Resonus (This Christmas Night - RES10113), the Choir of Worcester College, Oxford - under the direction of Stephen Farr - return with a second album of contemporary Christmas Carols.

Entitled Nowell sing we, this new selection contains works from a wide variety of celebrated composers including Gabriel Jackson, Peter Maxwell Davies, Lennox Berkeley, Colin Matthews, Francis Pott, Edmund Rubbra, Richard Rodney Bennett & Herbert Howells among many others, with no fewer than nine world premieres. Also featured throughout the programme are the seven O Antiphon Preludes for solo organ by Nico Muhly, performed here by Stephen Farr on the organ of Keble College, Oxford. (Synopsis by Resonus Classics)

• Sweet was the Song (op. 43 part 3)

Performed by the Worcester College Choir & Stephen Farr (conductor)

James Galway Collection: Lennox Berkeley Complete Works for Flute

Format: Digital download
Label: RCA
Release date: October 2014
Available from: Amazon USA

• Sonatina (op. 13)
• Concerto for Flute (op. 36)
• Sonata (op. 97)

Performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Lennox Berkeley (conductor), James Galway (flute) & Phillip Moll (piano)