SONATINA Op.13

It was at Maurice Ravel's suggestion that Lennox Berkeley went to Paris in 1927 to study with Nadia Boulanger. He got to know Poulenc, Stravinsky, Milhaud, Honegger and Roussel but it is suggested that Ravel was the strongest influence on his technical development as a composer. Back in England, Berkeley met Benjamin Britten in 1936 to begin a long lasting and fruitful artistic collaboration, but his own early compositions have a 'French' quality - for obvious reasons - marked by their "emphasis on melody, (the) lucid textures and a conciseness of expression."

The opus 13 Sonatina for recorder and piano was dedicated to Berkeley's god mother, the singer Sybil Jackson and written in 1939 for the second of Carl Dolmetsch's annual recorder recitals at the Wigmore Hall in London, and published the following year. It remains central to twentieth century English recorder repertoire, although is now probably performed more often on the flute. The first movement is technically challenging, playful but with suggestions of nostalgia. the second is pavane-like in its serenity and the finale reverts to the mood of the first with boisterous interplay between the soloist and the piano. "....great fun to play and, ....., to listen to."

• II. Adagio
• III. Allegro moderato

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