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Naxos 8.572288 The prolific British composer Lennox Berkeley (1903-1989) was always a little under the cloud of his contemporary and friend Benjamin Britten (they collaborated composing Mont Juic) and this magnificent collection of this chamber music should enhance his profile. This is splendid, and splendidly various music, all of it well written to showcase the combinations chosen from a vast repertoire of possibilities. The horn trio (the great Dennis Brain was first to play it) is a major work to set alongside the Brahms and Ligeti's, nearly half an hour long, finishing with a substantial set of variations. I used to play the Sonatina in the days of its dedicatee Carl Dolmetsch - originally for recorder, it goes well on flute. The viola sonata, composed in the aftermath of the 2nd World War, and featured by the present soloist in a Lennox Berkeley Centenary Concert 2003, is a subtle and sometimes sombre work which earns an enduring place in the repertoire. It receives a magisterial performance here, perfectly balanced with Terroni's piano. Hear too the three newly discovered unaccompanied viola pieces recorded by Morgan Goff at the same time; useful encore pieces. The wind & piano quintet (1975) has a harmonic astringency and reflects Berkeley's interest in serial elements in his latter years, a work which deserves wider concert hearings and would go well set against Poulenc's popular and more showy quintet. Well recorded throughout and with comprehensive notes by Richard Whitehouse, another terrific Naxos bargain. Peter Grahame Woolf |
