Lennox Berkeley - Guitar Concerto, Op. 88 (1974)

Sir Lennox Randal Francis Berkeley CBE (12 May 1903 – 26 December 1989) was an English composer.

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Guitar Concerto, Op. 88 (1974)
Dedication: for Julian Bream

1. Andantino - Allegretto (0:00)
2. Lento (8:21)
3. Allegro con brio (14:41)

Julian Bream, guitar
The Monteverdi Orchestra conducted by John Eliot Gardiner

Description by Blair Johnston
Just as guitarist Andrés Segovia was the catalyst for the guitar music efforts of so many early- and middle-twentieth-century composers, so was his prize protégé Julian Bream for composers of the last half of the century. Bream's incomparable gracefulness and refinement have made many a lesser composer sound pretty good, and when given top-rate material, such as Sir Lennox Berkeley's Guitar Concerto, Op. 88, of 1974 (the year Berkeley was knighted), Bream shines all the brighter. Berkeley's Concerto was commissioned by the Festival of the City of London and premiered on July 4, 1974, by Bream and the English Chamber Orchestra, Andrew Davis conducting.

The concerto is in the standard three-movement, fast-slow-fast format. The whole thing lasts a little over 20 minutes; and to keep the soloist from getting too frustrated with the problems of balance that always pop up when classical guitar and large ensemble meet, the composer asks for an orchestra of very moderate size -- just one flute, one oboe, one clarinet, one bassoon, a pair of horns, and strings in modest numbers.

The two horns start things off with a warm, 16-bar Andantino duet, completely unaccompanied. Then the tempo shifts gear a little bit (to Allegretto), the guitar comes in with some arpeggiated harmonies in the usual Berkeley extended-diatonic manner, and the flute offers a real melody. This first movement is thinly scored but not lacking in action or, at times, velocity -- the guitarist must tackle some virtuosic licks before all is said and done.

The second movement begins as a Lento for winds; but, as happened in the first movement, the tempo shifts when the soloist enters, and the movement becomes a songful Tranquillo, to which Berkeley applies, for the first time in the Concerto, a key signature: four sharps, though the E major that it represents, and in which the movement ultimately ends, is used in such a free manner that it is some time before we can be sure that it really exists.

The finale is a bright and vigorous Allegro con brio, begun by the guitarist in a healthy and self-assured G major. If one waited for a cadenza in the first movement, the wait was in vain: Berkeley has relocated it here in the last, just before the robust closing strains.