Berkeley: Nelson

Howarth, Elgar

SRCD 2392

In the work-list of Lennox Berkeley opera stands as a vibrant but not profuse presence. There were eventually to be four Berkeley operas in total encompassing more than five hours of music for voices and orchestra. Even leaving out of the reckoning a fifth, which was never completed, this represents the single largest quantity of music in Berkeley’s catalogue.

The fanfaring for the premiere caused quite a stir, so much so that it was broadcast live by the BBC on 30 September 1954. There were nine performances in the 1954/5 season and the whole opera was heard in Manchester on 8 October 1954 and Birmingham on 14 October 1954. A hiatus followed allowing for Robert Thomas and Anna Pollak championing an aria or arias on the BBC Home Service on 20 November 1955 in the “Divertissement” series.

Thirty years after the Sadler’s Wells premiere the opera had its first complete revival and this studio event (recorded at home by Richard Itter a recording on which these CDs are founded) was given by BBC Radio 3 incorporating the revisions to the Act II of Nelson which Berkeley had made for the 1960s broadcast. The artists included the BBC Singers, chorus-master Simon Joly and the BBC Symphony Orchestra led by Rodney Friend conducted by Elgar(Gary) Howarth. This went out on Sunday 23 October 1983, the year of Berkeley’s eightieth birthday. It was a centrepiece to theBBC radio series “The Operas of Berkeley”12. Peter Dickinson (a Patron of the Berkeley Society and author of the major Berkeley study) was the presenter

CD

2.06.2021

5020926239228