Composer: Lennox Berkeley
Performer: Norman Lumsden, Marjorie Westbury, Derek Williamson, Pamela Bowden, John Wilson, Cynthia Glover, Edward Darling, Johanna Peters, Elisabeth Robinson, Alfreda Hodgson, Soo-Bee Lee, Thomas Hemsley, Peter Pears, Geoffrey Chard, Patricia Clark, Jean Allister, Patricia Blans, Verity Ann Bates, Carolyn Maia, James Atkins, Malcolm Rivers
Orchestra: BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra
Conductor: Maurice Handford, Steuart Bedford, Meredith Davies
Number of DIscs: 3
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Lyrita
Catalogue: REAM2144
Release: 2021
Size: 922 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
CD 01
A Dinner Engagement, Op. 45
Scene 1
01. Salt, Pepper, Olive Oil
02. No Servants!
03. Mother, Please Can I Help?
04. We Saw Him Last
05. Missis Kneebone, the Green Cookery Book
Scene 2
06. So This, Dear Lady Dunmox, Is Your Drawing Room
07. Forgive My Curiosity
08. Sir, Will You Join Us?
09. But If You Are the Dunmow’s Daughter?
10. And Now, Shall We Go Into the Garden?
11. Kiss Her at Once!
12. Milords, Ladies, Dinner Is Served!
CD 02
Ruth, Op. 50
Scene 1
01. Once More I See Your Green and Golden Hills
02. See! Is This Naomi!
Scene 2
03. Gold Grows the Barley
04. Who Is This Approaching?
05. Let Me Beg You to Forgive Your Countrymen
Scene 3
06. This Is the Place! Come, Daughter
07. Golden Ripe the Barley Grows
08. Farewell, Bright Summer
09. Come Now, My Daughter
10. Ho There, My People!
CD 03
Castaway, Op. 68 (Live)
Scene 1
01. Great God, Poseidon!
Scene 2
02. Before the Morning of My Life
Scene 3
03. Blow Softly, Wind!
04. A Man? A Beast? A God?
05. Sir, Do Not Misunderstand Me
06. Orchestral Interlude
Scene 4
07. Drink Deep, Drink Slow
08. We Observe That Our Shipwrecked Stranger
09. I Will Sing You a Song of the Shore
10. What Shall I Sing to My Lord the Stranger
11. My Lord, Why Do You Weep?
12. Farewell Odysseus
Berkeley’s first opera, Nelson, was put on at Sadler’s Wells in 1954. The others were performed by the English Opera Group which had been founded by the young Benjamin Britten, Joan Cross, Eric Crozier and Peter Pears in 1946. In the same year as the Nelson premiere Berkeley’s first one-acter, A Dinner Engagement, featured at Aldeburgh. Aldeburgh was also the scene of Ruth in 1956 and Castaway in 1967. Each work inhabits its own world, and each finds Berkeley’s musical imagination delivering new sounds to match the drama.