Lennox Berkeley - Chamber Music (Various Artists)

Information

Composer: Lennox Berkeley

• (01) Trio for Violin, Horn and Piano, Op. 44
• (04) Sonatina for Flute and Piano, Op. 13
• (07) Viola Sonata, Op. 22
• (10) Quintet for Oboe, Clarinet, Horn, Bassoon and Piano, Op. 90

Raphael Terroni, piano

Susanne Stanzeleit, violin

Patrick Williams, flute

Morgan Goff, viola

Members of the New London Chamber Ensemble

Date: 2021

Label: Naxos

https://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.572288

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Review

Wind players have much to thank Lennox Berkeley for. Unlike so many other composers, he gave them a weighting in his oeuvre equal to the otherwise lavishly favoured string players.

This disc encompasses only a small part of that work, so one hopes it is destined to become part of a series, for there is some captivating music here, starting with the Trio for violin, horn and piano, written in 1953 (the booklet claims 1944) and premiered by Dennis Brain no less.

Its highlight is a wonderfully inventive and wide-ranging movement of variations. Susanne Stanzeleit’s violin tone is a little ungrateful on the ear, but Stephen Stirling’s horn playing is magical. 

The Sonatina for flute (originally recorder) is suavely if a bit breathily played by Patrick Williams, and there’s some deft give and take in the New London Chamber Ensemble’s account of the late Quintet for wind and piano.

Just to remind us that Berkeley hardly ignored string players either, there’s the Viola Sonata of 1946, a darker, deeply thought work to which Morgan Goff brings

both sensitivity and charisma.

Pianist Raphael Terroni is a constant throughout these performances and is clearly a demur yet supportive chamber player. The recordings are close but generously proportioned.

-- Matthew Rye, BBC Music Magazine

More reviews:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2010/June10/Berkeley_8572288.htm

https://www.allmusic.com/album/lennox-berkeley-chamber-music-mw0001973273

https://www.naxos.com/reviews/reviewslist.asp?catalogueid=8.572288&languageid=EN

https://www.amazon.com/Berkeley-Chamber-Music-Lennox/dp/B0037TTQD8

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Lennox Berkeley (12 May 1903 – 26 December 1989) was an English composer. Born in Oxford, England, he went to Paris to study music with Nadia Boulanger in 1927. Berkeley also studied with Maurice Ravel, often cited as a key influence in his technical development as a composer. Berkeley's earlier music is broadly tonal, influenced by the neoclassical music of Stravinsky. However, from the mid-1950s, he started including tone rows and aspects of serial technique in his compositions. From 1946 to 1968, Berkeley taught at the Royal Academy of Music. His pupils included Richard Rodney Bennett and John Tavener.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lennox_Berkeley

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