Berkeley: Piano Concerto,Op. 29 in B flat major / Berkeley, Michael-Gethsemane Fragment; Four Poems of St Teresa of Avila, Op. 27

Editor's Choice - Gramophone Magazine (February 2005)

"This eloquent father-and-son series restores the scintillating concerto. Strenuous, interleaving string lines accompany this pastoral 'conversation' on divinity, asking 'How is God omnipotent?' It's one of Lennox Berkeley's most striking, intense works, and perhaps not quite as 'French' as previous volumes in this superb series. Catherine Wyn-Rogers assumes Ferrier's mantle with authority."
(Gramophone)

Chandos' innovatory Berkeley Edition, launched in 2002, is now coming to be regarded as one of the UK's most important recording projects currently underway, providing a valuable sound document of the music of father and son Sir Lennox and Michael Berkeley, both tremendously important figures in British musical life. The series is exactly the sort of project for which Chandos is famous - committed advocacy of home-grown composers whose work deserves to be far more widely known.

Sir Lennox Berkeley is of that generation of English composers which included Walton and Britten, but his French ancestry and connections (he studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris and was friends with Ravel) mean that his music has a distinctly gallic flavour. Michael Berkeley was a chorister at Westminster Cathedral, and as a boy soprano he worked frequently with his godfather, Benjamin Britten. An articulate communicator on music, he was Artistic Director of the Cheltenham International Festival for ten years and is well known as a broadcaster on radio and television.

Premiere recordings of Michael Berkeley's Tristessa and Gethsemane Fragment