British composer dies

Press, 28 December 1989, Page 9

British composer dies

NZPA-PA London A British composer, Sir Lennox Berkeley, best known tor the “Stabat Mater,” died on Tuesday in a London hospital, his son, Michael, said. Sir Lennox, aged 85, died from a bad respiratory infection. A funeral service will be held next week, and a memorial concert will follow later. Sir Lennox, who once confessed himself “completely old-fashioned" about music, wrote opera, chamber music, concertos and four full symphonies. He went to Oxfoal University, where hftfJ read French, Old French and

philology and decided to devote himself to music. He studied in Paris for five years and returned in 1935, the year of his first big work, the oratorio “Jonah,” performed at the Leeds Festival. Another choral work, “Domini est Terra,” came three years later, then music for string quartets, solo instruments and orchestra. He completed his “First Symphony” in 1940. The “Stabat Mater,” for six voices and 12 instruments, was written for Benjamin Britten’s English Opera Group and was first performed in 1947.