Gerald Hugh Tyrwhitt-Wilson, 14th Baron Berners, aka Lord Berners is one of the great English eccentrics. He wrote his own epitaph, for example, which appears on his gravestone:
Here lies Lord Berners
One of the learners
His great love of learning
May earn him a burning
But, Praise the Lord!
He seldom was bored.
Though he hung out with such forward-looking artists as Igor Stravinsky, Salvador Dali and Gertrude Stein, his music (except for some early works) isn't especially avant garde or modernist. Rather, it is accessible, tuneful and light.
Lord Berners by Bill Brandt, 1945
"I wonder if by any chance you are free to dine tomorrow night?
It is only a tiny party for Winston [Churchill] and GBS [George Bernard Shaw].
There will be no one else except for Toscanini and myself."
Indeed, the music often sounds much like superior English Light Music, in the style of Eric Coates or Percy Grainger. The charming 30-second Fanfare, though, hearkens back to Façade, by William Walton & Edith Sitwell, while the Habanero from Les Sirènes is awfully similar to Darius Milhaud's Le Boeuf Sur Le Toit. So progressive to a degree, though his models were 20 to 30 years in the past.
The key word here is "charm". It doesn't require any deep thought, but as ballet music (with choreography in both ballets by Frederick Ashton) it shouldn't. More than an hour of uninterrupted charm is a true gift.
The wonderful cover painting is Edward Burne-Jones's "Cupid Delivering Psyche", from 1867.
This album will be released on March 11, 2022.
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