Father And Son

The record label Chandos have released an enterprising series of cd's called the Berkeley Edition, featuring the music of the British composer Lennox Berkeley and that of his son Michael. Lennox was of the generation of Britten, who was in fact godfather to Michael. Michael is still active as composer, broadcaster and arts administrator. I believe there were five volumes to the Berkeley Edition and I have one of them, Volume 3. It is a fruitless exercise to consider which of the pair is the better composer but on this particular disk it is I think the son who makes the greater impression. The Lennox piece is his Symphony No 4, his final symphony written in the late 1970s. I suspect that by that time it was looked on as a little old fashioned, very well crafted and perfectly good music but somewhat lightweight. The two works on the disk by Michael Berkeley are as would be expected, sparkier and more contemporary. There is a cello concerto that remains easliy accessible and a tougher more dramatic piece called the Garden of Earthly Delights, scored for orchestra with featured violin, soprano sax and trombone and sundry percussion effects. The performers are the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under Richard Hickox, with Alban Gerhardt the soloist in the cello concerto.