Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction by Peter Dickinson
- Part I Reports from Paris, 1929–34
- Part II Letters to Nadia Boulanger, 1929–74
- Part III Selections from Berkeley's Later Writings and Talks, 1943–82
- Part IV Interviews with Berkeley, 1973–8
- 1 With Peter Dickinson, 1973
- 2 With C. B. Cox, Alan Young and Michael Schmidt, 1974
- 3 With Peter Dickinson, 1978
- 4 With Michael Oliver, 1978
- Part V Extracts from Berkeley's Diaries, 1966–82
- Part VI Interviews with Performers, Composers, Family and Friends, 1990–91
- Part VII Memorial Address by Sir John Manduell
- Catalogue of Works
- Bibliography
- Index of Works by Berkeley
- General Index
4 - With Michael Oliver, 1978
from Part IV - Interviews with Berkeley, 1973–8
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction by Peter Dickinson
- Part I Reports from Paris, 1929–34
- Part II Letters to Nadia Boulanger, 1929–74
- Part III Selections from Berkeley's Later Writings and Talks, 1943–82
- Part IV Interviews with Berkeley, 1973–8
- 1 With Peter Dickinson, 1973
- 2 With C. B. Cox, Alan Young and Michael Schmidt, 1974
- 3 With Peter Dickinson, 1978
- 4 With Michael Oliver, 1978
- Part V Extracts from Berkeley's Diaries, 1966–82
- Part VI Interviews with Performers, Composers, Family and Friends, 1990–91
- Part VII Memorial Address by Sir John Manduell
- Catalogue of Works
- Bibliography
- Index of Works by Berkeley
- General Index
Summary
Interview about the Fourth Symphony for ‘Music Weekly’, BBC Radio Ʒ, 28 May 1978
Michael Oliver (1937–2002) was an exceptionally fluent and well-informed broadcaster. He presented ‘Music Weekly’ on BBC Radio Ʒ (1975–90) and ‘Kaleidoscope’ on BBC Radio 4 (1974–87). He wrote for various periodicals and published biographies of Stravinsky and Britten.
meo Sir Lennox Berkeley's First Symphony is obviously not music of grand gestures or extravagant colour. Words like ‘civilised’, ‘elegant’, ‘unassertive’ are often applied to his work. But it would be wrong to assume that those adjectives add up to a noun like ‘miniaturist’ or ‘water-colourist’. The First Symphony shows remarkable variety of invention, a closeness of argument, and meticulous economy. Berkeley may never write a ninety-minute symphony with a choral finale, but to take on a new symphony with this degree of tight discipline is a major, even a rather daunting job.
lb It is a big task and I feel slightly alarmed and despondent about starting on it. Once I've got into it, I'm driven on somehow by a kind of urge – it's a bad thing if one isn't because it means one's got to construct artificially instead of the thing taking hold of you as you write, so to speak.
meo I've spoken to one or two composers of symphonies who seem to be spurred on by one symphony to write another – a sense of unfinished business where, having written one symphony, they now know what to do in the next. Did you feel that way?
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Lennox Berkeley and FriendsWritings, Letters and Interviews, pp. 176 - 178Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2012