Lennox Berkeley
Listening to this complete survey of Berkeley’s piano music, I am struck by how much more French it sounds than English; hardly surprising, given that he studied in Paris with Boulanger and that one of his strongest friendships was with Francis Poulenc. He could be part of that group that also included Françaix and Dutilleux. He was a staunch Catholic too and so the cross-channel identity ran deep. Berkeley composed at the piano, indeed one day in about 1980 he allowed me to sit with him in his house in Warwick Avenue, Maida Vale, while he did so. He was no virtuoso public performer, though, and his music reflects his essentially private and domestic nature…