Lennox Berkeley: Overture in B flat (1959) Part I

Search the texts books relating to Sir Lennox Berkeley (1903-89) and you will find virtually nothing about his delightful Overture in B flat. Even the major study of the composer’s music by Peter Dickinson (1988/2003) does not mention it.

In 2017 the Lennox Berkeley Society posted a link to a YouTube (see end of essay) recording originally made on 25 April 1983 from Radio 3. It was part of Matinee Musicale broadcast at 14.05. The Ulster Orchestra was conducted by Marcus Dodds. Other works in this programme included Felix Mendelssohn’s Overture: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky’s March and Waltz form the Nutcracker Suite, Edward Elgar’s Canto Popolare (In Moonlight), Karl-Heinz Koper’s Musik zur Unterhaltung (Music for Entertainment) and concluded with Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Ballade in A minor. These last two numbers seem to have disappeared from the repertoire, although there is a recording of the Ballade. (ARGO 436 401-2, 1993)

The year 1959 was an interesting one for Lennox Berkeley. On 11 February he conducted the premiere of his Concerto for piano and double string orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall. The soloist was Colin Horsley. The premiere of Berkeley’s Symphony No.2 was given at Birmingham Town Hall with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andrzej Panufnik on 24 February. Other first performances that year included the Five Poems of W.H. Auden completed the previous year and the Sonatina for two pianos.

The Overture in B flat was commissioned by the BBC for the Light Music Festival of 1959. The work was dedicated to Vilem and Peggy Tausky. In that year there were only four BBC commissions: the present Overture, Alun Hoddinott’s Nocturne and Dance for harp and orchestra, Gordon Jacob’s Overture: Fun Fare, Andrzej Panufnik’s Polonia, a suite of Polish Dances, and Cecil Armstrong Gibbs Suite of Traditional Songs. All five works have disappeared into oblivion. We are lucky to have the 1983 radio recording of the Berkeley and the CPO recording of Polonia.

Berkeley began work on his Overture in B flat during April 1959. According to the ‘chronology’ (Craggs, 2000) it was completed on 1 June, after which the composer went on a tour of Italy, visiting Rome and Assisi. The overture is scored for 2 each flutes, oboe, clarinet and bassoon, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, percussion, harp and strings.

The premiere performance was given at the Royal Festival Hall on 4 July 1959 with the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Vilem Tausky. It was the fifth concert in the Light Music Festival Series, sponsored by the BBC and the London County Council.

This was a rather strange concert. The Radio Times (26 June 1959) billed it ‘A Commonwealth Programme’ with a tribute to the USA. There were three new works presented. Berkeley’s Overture, Gordon Jacob’s Fun Fare Overture and two movements from ‘Spike’ Hughes’ Serenade. Two more movements of this latter work were subsequently produced.  Other pieces included a Suite from George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess conducted by William Byrd, and a variety of music played on a Multi-Colourtone Electronic Instrument by William Davies. There were some movements from Hubert Clifford’s Cowes Suite, conducted by the composer. This was introduced to the audience by Uffa Fox, (1898-1972) the yachtsman and boat builder.  The harmonica player Tommy Reilly presented ‘Marching and Waltzing’ with the orchestra. Arthur Sullivan’s ‘March of the Peers’ was played by the military band and trumpeters. The concert concluded with a Grand Finale of Songs of the British Isles.
Lennox Berkeley’s Overture in B flat can be heard on You Tube. 

Bibliography:

Craggs, Stewart R., Lennox Berkeley: A Source Book (Ashgate, Aldershot, 2000)

Dickinson, Peter, The Music of Lennox Berkeley (The Boydell Press, Woodbridge, 1988/2003

The reviews of this concert will be featured in my next post.