Lord Berners (1883-1950) - 1-5 December

[Serial_Apologist]

The choice of Lord Berners as COTW, is surely a welcome departure from the usual suspects.

A British composer with an aristocratic pedigree - or should that be pretentions? - but one of the few of his time (the others being Bliss, Lambert, Walton and maybe Brian) who, at any rate briefly, broke with the post-Vaughan Williams/Delius aesthetic options and went for what France, post-Debussy, and Italy, post-Puccini, had to offer... or so it seems.

Was Berners the one figure who remained faithful to those cross-Channel connections?

Are we going to find out?

Discuss?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

one of the few of his time (the others being Bliss, Lambert, Walton and maybe Brian) who, at any rate briefly, broke with the post-Vaughan Williams/Delius aesthetic options and went for what France, post-Debussy, and Italy, post-Puccini, had to offer... or so it seems.

Was Berners the one figure who remained faithful to those cross-Channel connections?

John Foulds?


Berners was Stravinsky's favourite "living Brit".

[Despina dello Stagno]

Are congratulations due to Random House for a what seems a most successful product placement from their Christmas booklist.?

http://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/SearchResults?kn=mad+boy&tn=Lord+Berners

This sort of behaviour seems m ore appropriate to the TV chat shows than to COTW.

[teamsaint]

Are congratulations due to Random House for a what seems a most successful product placement from their Christmas booklist.?

http://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/SearchResults?kn=mad+boy&tn=Lord+Berners

This sort of behaviour seems m ore appropriate to the TV chat shows than to COTW.

looks more than a bit coincidental.

Good spot, DdS.

interesting stuff, in any case though.

[Bryn]

Will the infamous Gavin Bryars quote re. the good lord comment get a mention, I wonder:

"If he had spent more time on his music he could have become a duller composer"

[Despina dello Stagno]

Will the infamous Gavin Bryars quote re. the good lord comment get a mention, I wonder:

"If he had spent more time on his music he could have become a duller composer"

Time that he spent (partly) building his folly tower (A.K.A. Lord Berners' monstrous erection) on which he put the notice "Those committing suicide from this building do so at their own risk". H&S was with us even in them days.

[Bryn]

Hmm. Earlier today the online schedule carried the massage that programme would be available on the iPlayer soon ofter broadcast. The message has now been changed to "Sorry, this episode is not currently available on BBC iPlayer Radio".

[StatMallard]

Wednesday afternoon and still no sign of the Lord Burners programmes appearing on the Iplayer. Am I missing something (apart from the programmes!) or has there been an issue / flagged up about non-availabilty?

[Bryn]

I reported the lack of the first episode via https://iplayerhelp.external.bbc.co.uk/tv/forms . It's a decidedly convoluted process and so far all I have had is an acknowledgement of receipt of my report. No sign of it appearing as an issue currently under investigation. This despite it being announced after each evening repeat that the programmes would be available in High Definition Sound for the next 7 days.

I will try raising the issue again via a fault report dealing with the 2nd programme. Perhaps others could do likewise?

[Bryn]

Last week's Lord Berners programmes have now been made available via the on demand feature of the iPlayer.

[Serial_Apologist]

Last week's Lord Berners programmes have now been made available via the on demand feature of the iPlayer.

Thanks Bryn.

Berners's turned out to be an interesting journey, if one which, like that of the french composer Henri Sauguet (mentioned in one of the programmes), saw an early rebellious creativity somewhat dulled in later years.