Berkeley’s Third Symphony
is an impressive achievement. In concentrating
his musical arguments into a mere fifteen-minute
span, it shows Berkeley in effect flexing
his compositional muscles. It is the
crowning glory of this disc.
The work was premièred
by the Orchestre National de la RTF
under Jean Martinon in 1969 – and that
conductor was rightly impressed by the
work. This is unsurprising as there
is an underlying nod towards French
Impressionism within the confines of
Berkeley’s prevailing dynamism. The
writing is certainly grittier than the
other works in the programme. The orchestration
is fairly dense without being overcrowded.
Berkeley conducts confidently, here
as elsewhere, climaxes seeming logical
outgrowths of the musical workings.
The orchestral suite
Mont Juic holds an interesting
story. The musical material comes from
some Catalan folk music that Berkeley
and Britten heard in a park called Mont
Juic. Britten wrote down some of the
tunes there and then. The two composers
then collaborated on a four-movement
suite, published as Berkeley’s Op. 9
and Britten’s Op. 12. Initially the
two composers would not reveal who wrote
what, but the booklet-note writer, Peter
Dickinson, states that Berkeley told
him that Britten wrote the last two
movements. The full score is all in
Britten’s hand. The Suite is delightful,
full of interesting orchestration. The
mood clouds for the third movement (one
of Britten’s).
A recent Hyperion reissue
on the Helios reissue label reminded
me of Sir Lennox Berkeley’s sure compositional
hand and his ability to delight in lighter
music (http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2003/Aug03/Berkeley_Centenary.htm).
This was true for Berkeley’s two movements
of Mont Juic; and more especially
so for the Serenade for Strings,
with its generally sunny demeanour.
Berkeley chooses to end with a brief
(four-minute) Lento which has the effect
of deepening the experience.
The Divertimento
is scored for small orchestra (two trumpets,
two horns and a trombone make up the
brass). The bright, light-footed ‘Prelude’
gives way to a darker ‘Nocturne’ (excellent
woodwind contributions here). In fact
both middle movements are fun, the whole
rounded off by a light Rondo.
The Partita
dates from twenty years later. Written
for the Farnham Festival of School Music,
it was first performed there on May
17th, 1965. Its four movements
are: Prelude and Fugue; Aria 1; Aria
2; Rondo. An energetic, determined Prelude
(slightly acidic in tone, with more
than an element of the Neo-Classical)
and Fugue lead to the two short Arias.
The first, marked Andante, is dominated
by ‘lazy’ wind solos (although it sounds
too slow for Andante to me); the second,
a Lento, is more serious in intent.
The finale shows distinct traces of
Stravinsky, both in terms of a certain
acidity to the harmonic language and
also in its rhythmic interest.
Finally comes the three-minute
‘Canzonetta’ from the Sinfonia concertante,
Op. 84. A true piece of English pastoral
tone-painting, the oboe solos are delightfully
played by Roger Winfield.
The disc’s programme
has evidently been very carefully considered
- it works supremely well as a straight
listen-through. The whole is superbly
recorded in true Lyrita fashion – rich
and warm, yet letting all the detail
through.
Colin Clarke
The
Lyrita catalogue
aRoger Winfield (oboe). 
