Lennox Randal (Francis) Berkeley was born at Sunningwell Plain, near Oxford, on 12 May 1903, into an aristocratic family. He attended Lynam’s (later the Dragon School), Oxford, Gresham’s School, Holt, and St George’s School, Harpenden, where he had his first work performed. He went up to Merton College, Oxford, to read French, Old French and Philology and he rowed. He was cox of the Merton VIII for three years but cannot have taken his studies seriously since he left with a fourth class degree in 1926. He had hardly got into his stride as a composer in his Oxford years but whilst there he became the first to set Auden’s poetry (two songs now lost), was intrigued by early music and wrote for its instruments, such as the harpsichord owned and played by his flatmate, Vere Pilkington, and the conductor Anthony Bernard started to give the first of several performances of his music with the London Chamber Orchestra.

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	REAM.2109 Lennox Berkeley, Arthur Benjamin - Works for Piano Colin Horsley, piano (Berkeley), Lamar Crowson, piano (Benjamin) One of the most significant British composers of his generation, Lennox Berkeley (1903 - 1989) had a distinctive refined and Gallic style, befitting an ex-pupil of Nadia Boulanger. In his most characteristic works, however, taste and restraint never precludes depth of feeling and intensity of expression. His individual blend of wit, elegance and exuberance is arguably at its most compelling in the intimate medium of chamber music ...
	SRCD.226 Lennox Berkeley - Divertimento, Symphony No.3 etc. Roger Winfield, oboe, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Lennox Berkeley, conductor
	SRCD.249 Lennox Berkeley - Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2 London Philharmonic Orchestra, Norman Del Mar, conductor, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Nicholas Braithwaite, conductor Lennox Randal (Francis) Berkeley was born at Sunningwell Plain, near Oxford, on 12 May 1903, into an aristocratic family. He attended Lynam’s (later the Dragon School), Oxford, Gresham’s School, Holt, and St George’s School, Harpenden, where he had his first work performed. He went up to Merton College, Oxford, to read French, Old French and Philology and he rowed. He was cox of the Merton VIII for three years but cannot have taken his studies seriously since he left with a fourth class degree in 1926. He had hardly got into his stride as a composer in his Oxford years but whilst there he became the first to set Auden’s poetry (two songs now lost), was intrigued by early music and wrote for its instruments, such as the harpsichord owned and played by his flatmate, Vere Pilkington, and the conductor Anthony Bernard started to give the first of several performances of his music with the London Chamber Orchestra.
	SRCD.250 Lennox Berkeley - Piano Concerto in B flat, Concerto for Two Pianos David Wilde, piano, New Philharmonia Orchestra, Nicholas Braithwaite, conductor, Garth Beckett & Boyd McDonald, pianos, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Norman Del Mar, conductor Sir Lennox Berkeley needs little introduction as one of the leading British composers of the generation of Walton and Tippett. His output for the piano in solos, duos, concertos and chamber music is unrivalled in the British twentieth century scene.
	SRCD.256 Rawsthorne, Berkeley, Bush - Chamber Music The Music Group of London, Hugh Bean, violin, Eileen Croxford, cello, David Parkhouse, piano, with Frances Routh, violin , Christopher Wellington, viola , Jack Brymer, clarinet , Alan Civil, horn , Alan Bush, piano , Members of the Aeolian Quartet , Sydney Humphreys, violin, Margaret Major, viola, Derek Simpson, cello;
	SRCD.257 Rawsthorne & Tippett - Divertimentos, Britten, Arnold & Berkeley - Sinfoniettas English Chamber Orchestra, Norman Del Mar conductor, London Symphony Orchestra, Nicholas Braithwaite, conductor In considering these works for chamber orchestra by twentieth-century British composers, it is worth noting that the Elgar - Vaughan Williams generation wrote nothing in these forms. There is a practical reason for this. The growth of the virtuoso chamber orchestra in Britain is a comparatively recent occurrence. Elgar's so-called salon music was written for amateur groups, in most cases, or for the theatre orchestras which then abounded, but there were no high-standard professional ensembles in the area between such bodies as Ivan Caryll's Orchestra and the big symphony orchestras. In our time, with the existence of the English Chamber Orchestra, the Northern Sinfonia, the London Mozart Players, the Manchester Camerata and many more,works such as are here recorded receive the accomplished, polished performances which are their due.