String Orchestra

SKU: HL.14004140

Composed by Lennox Berkeley. Music Sales America. Classical. Studyscore. Composed 2003. 52 pages. Chester Music #CH66308. Published by Chester Music (HL.14004140).

ISBN 9780711998322. UPC: 502067952679. 7.0x10.0x0.156 inches.

A new edition of one of Berkeley's most frequently performed works, in this the composer's centenary year. This work is a classic in the repertoire of British Music for this medium. The first movement has the sparkling elegance of Mozart whom Berkeley idolised, but also the driving rhythm of a Bach Brandenburg Concerto; the second is a serenade; the third a kind of scherzo; but the final movement seems to reflect the tragic war years with a slow reminiscence of the opening theme at the very end. A critical commentary by Berkeley expert, Peter Dickinson, is provided.

Violin and Piano (Violin)

SKU: HL.14004213

Composed by Lennox Berkeley. Music Sales America. Classical. Book [Softcover]. Composed 2002. 56 pages. Chester Music #CH55778. Published by Chester Music (HL.14004213).

9.0x12.0x0.175 inches.

Five Pieces for Violin and Orchestra was commissioned by Frederick Grinke and completed on 20 December 1961. The BBC Symphony Orchestra with Frederick Grinke (violin) and conducted by the composer, gave the first performance on 31 July 1962 at the Royal Albert Hall, London during the BBC Proms season. This work is so constructed that each piece is complete in itself and can be played separately, while at the same time the whole set of five constitutes a structural unit. A basic motif consisting of a rising semitone followed by a falling tone, and its inversion plays an important part in every piece. Thus the first piece, which is of a slow and meditative character, begins with this theme in the bass. It is also heard in the first entry of the solo part, and thereafter every episode is in some way derived from it. The next piece, a vigorous and strongly marked 'allegro', uses the semitone of the original figure as its starting point. A second theme appears, first on the horns and is later taken up by the solo violin, while a third section has the initial idea as its accompaniment. Next comes an extended scherzo in free form very closely based on initial motif. The fourth is a purely melodic piece containing allusions in its middle section to the basic figure. Here the strings only are used for accompaniment. In the first section, violas and cellos are divided in the middle section, and all the strings are used in the last, which is otherwise an almost exact repetition of the opening. The Finale is a lighter movement than the others, concerned mainly with giving the soloist material for display, but not unconnected with what has gone before.

Vocal and Piano

SKU: HL.14004218

Composed by Lennox Berkeley. Music Sales America. Classical. Softcover. Composed 2002. 56 pages. Chester Music #CH55985. Published by Chester Music (HL.14004218).

ISBN 9780711932890. 0.43 inches.

16 french songs with notes by Roger Nichols May.

2 Pianos

SKU: HL.14004154

Composed by Lennox Berkeley. Music Sales America. Classical. Book [Softcover]. Composed 2002. Chester Music #CH02941. Published by Chester Music (HL.14004154).

9.0x11.75x0.483 inches.

Version for 2 Pianos with second Piano playing orchestral reduction. Premiered at Royal Albert Hall in 1948.

Medium Voice and Piano

SKU: HL.14004175

Composed by Lennox Berkeley. Music Sales America. Classical. Book [Softcover]. Composed 2002. Chester Music #CH04035. Published by Chester Music (HL.14004175).

For Mezzo-Soprano or Baritone and Piano. Text: Jean Passerat.

Piano (Piano)

SKU: HL.14004150

Composed by Lennox Berkeley. Music Sales America. 20th Century. Book [Softcover]. Composed 2001. 8 pages. Chester Music #CH02336. Published by Chester Music (HL.14004150).

ISBN 9780711927490. UPC: 884088428730. 9.0x12.0x0.063 inches.

Composed in 1955.

Violin and Piano (Violin)

SKU: HL.14004158

Composed by Lennox Berkeley. Music Sales America. 20th Century. Book [Softcover]. Composed 2002. 16 pages. Chester Music #CH00395. Published by Chester Music (HL.14004158).

ISBN 9780711928107. 8.75x11.75x0.06 inches.

From Op.33 for Violin and Piano.

Piano

SKU: HL.14004188

Composed by Lennox Berkeley. Music Sales America. Classical. Book [Softcover]. Composed 2002. 30 pages. Chester Music #CH02304. Published by Chester Music (HL.14004188).

ISBN 9780711922488. 8.25x11.75x0.15 inches.

Work dating from 1945.

SATB Choir

SKU: HL.14018342

Composed by Lennox Berkeley. Music Sales America. Choral. Octavo. Composed 2002. 12 pages. Chester Music #CH55166. Published by Chester Music (HL.14018342).

UPC: 884088445072. 8.25x11.75x0.052 inches.

Work for SSATBB Chorus commissioned by the 1978 Three Choirs Festival.

Orchestra, Chamber Group

SKU: HL.14004231

Composed by Lennox Berkeley. Music Sales America. Classical. Score. Composed 2002. Chester Music #CH08892. Published by Chester Music (HL.14004231).

Work for Chamber Orchestra commissioned by the 1969 Windsor Festival and premiered by the Menuhin Festival Orchestra.

Good work for examinations and recitals by an important British composer. Duration c.6'. AMEB (Australian Syllabus) 2004. Programme notes as follows:

Lennox Berkeley was born in 1903 and died in 1989. After reading modern languages at Oxford he had no intention of becoming a composer until he met Ravel in 1926, who encouraged him to study in Paris with Nadia Boulanger. He stayed in Paris until 1932, developing his own musical language. In 1936, after the death of his mother, he went to Barcelona for the International Society for Contemporary Music festival where he met Benjamin Britten. The two lived together at Snape in Suffolk for a while until the outbreak ofwar, before Berkeley moved back to London to work for the BBC. Here he met his future wife Freda Bernstein. He taught at the Royal Academy of Music in London from 1946 until 1968, where his pupils included Richard Rodney Bennett, Nicholas Maw and John Tavener, among others. He was knighted in 1974.

In early February 1971 I was playing in a concert at St. John's Smith Square, London, then only relatively recently restored as a superb venue for music. The programme, which I believe was being broadcast, included Berkeley's Serenade Op.12. It was a work I had always enjoyed playing and was standard string orchestra repertoire at the time. There was initially no platform at St. John's and so the audience sat virtually on top of the performers. So close were they on this occasion that I had to ask for a little more room in order to play. At the end of the piece the orchestra acknowledged the applause and the gentleman who I had all but practically decapitated with my over-enthusiastic playing, stood up and took a bow. I had been almost playing in Lennox Berkeley's lap! The opportunity was too good to miss and I wasted little time in introducing myself. Mr Berkeley said that he had been fascinated by my playing and asked me to write to him about a possible commission.

This I did on 6 February, mentioning that