Lennox Berkeley: Mont Juic,Serenade for Strings,Divertimento,Partita for Chamber Orchestra,Symphony No 3 Lpo/Sir Lennox Berkeley Lyrita 
This arrived today! Well,I never thought I would enjoy the music of Lennox Berkeley this much! A very enjoyable music program of music. All very lyrical & approachable. I can now understand people who say that there is a French quality (or feel) to some of his music. A composer like Poulenc does,indeed,spring to mind,at times when listening to this music. (Albeit,I don't mean he sounds,literally,
like Poulenc! I'm merely referring to the elegance,economy and polish of the orchestration!) The Mont Juic is rather lovely (and tuneful)!. Berkeley composed the first two movements and Britten the last two. This is Britten in his lighter vein and shows off his mastery of orchestration. This is a lovely piece and should be more popular. I haven't had time to digest all the pieces on this cd yet,but all the music on this cd is very enjoyable. I liked the symphony,too. I'm not a musician,so I can't get into technical details,but it's lyrical,with just the right degree of astringency (less severe than,say,Fricker or Cooke and none of the tortuous string writing you find in allot of Tippett,thank g**!) In fact,listening to this and the emi collected I posted about previously, makes me all the more eager to hear the first two symphonies and and the Concerto for Two Pianos,which appears to be a favourite with people who like LB's music.
