Composer of the Week - Lord Berners - Berners and Diaghilev

In spite of his ultra-establishment position as a peer of the realm, Lord Berners didn’t connect at all with the old guard in the artistic world. He found he had more in common with the wildly eccentric Sitwells who, like him, were rebelling against a conventional Victorian upbringing. Berners’ idiosyncratic ways didn’t deter some of the greatest artistic talents of the time from a desire to work with him. Donald Macleod introduces two works commissioned by the renowned impresario Serge Diaghilev – Berners’s first and only opera and the suite from his fairytale ballet. Trois Chansons Felicity Lott (soprano) Peter Lawson (piano) ALBANY TROY 290 T6-8 Le Carosse du Saint-Sacrement – Scenes 7 & 8 The Viceroy Ian Caddy (baritone) La Perichole Cynthia Buchan (soprano) Thomas d’Esquivel Thomas Lawlor Bishop of Lima Anthony Smith Balthasar (Viceroy’s servant) John Winfield BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra Nicholas Cleobury, conductor MARCO POLO 8.225155 T9&10 Fugue in C minor Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra Barry Wordsworth, conductor CAMPION CAMEO 2054 The Triumph of Neptune Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra Barry Wordsworth, conductor CAMPION CAMEO 2054