Lennox Berkeley: Suite for String Orchestra (1974)

Whatever happened to Lennox Berkeley’s Suite for String Orchestra, op.87? According to Stewart R. Crags (Lennox Berkeley: A Source Book, Ashgate, Aldershot, 2000, p.115) this work was completed in 1974. It had been commissioned by the Westminster Cathedral String Orchestra, with funds from the Arts Council. It was duly performed at St John’s Smith Square, London on 1 June 1974, under the baton of Colin Mawby. Concertgoers also heard Berkeley’s Antiphon for string orchestra, in two movements. The evening included music by Corelli, Boyce, and Handel as well as an “inane” harp concertino by Jean-Michel Demase, with Ossian Ellis as soloist.

The Suite is in four movements: Introduction (Lento) and Fugue (Allegro); Air (Andantino); Scherzo and Epilogue (Lento sostenuto). It had a duration for about 11 minutes.

The manuscript is dated “Nov:1973-Jan:1974.” It was published in 1974 by J.& W. Chester Ltd. Other music written around this time included the Guitar Concerto, op.88

The Daily Telegraph (3 June 1974, p.12) gave an excellent complimentary review of the Suite: “The new piece…proved delightfully ingratiating to listen to, if no doubt tricky to play.” The critic considered that “the most immediately memorable movement, Scherzo, contained a trio melody of heartwarming luminosity, and the work opened and closed in a quiet serenity which, together with the flowing spun-out Air stamp the work with the composer’s typically reticent poetry.”

And then the Suite disappears. There is no recording listed on the Lennox Berkeley Website. I was unable to find an assessment of the score. Furthermore, there is no discussion of it in Peter Dickinson’s The Music of Lennox Berkeley (Woodbridge, Boydell Press, 2003) nor in Tony Scotland’s Lennox and Freda (Norwich, Michael Russell, 2010). I was unable to locate any subsequent concert performances or BBC radio broadcasts.

This is clearly a major work by one of Britain’s senior composers that has simply disappeared. Perhaps it is time for a revival?