Lennox Berkeley: Ode Du Premier Jour De Mai Op.14 No.2: Medium Voice:

For Solo Voice and Piano.There are various versions of this anonymous ballad that has its own traditionalmelody. Berkeley provided a folk-like setting in this song for Sophie Wyss (1897-1983) the Swiss sopranoliving in England who gave important premieres of Britten.Wyss and Berkeley gave the first performance in a BBC broadcast on 13 July 1947.He had already dedicated ‘Tant que mes yeux’ Op. 14 No.2/6 to her and withhimshe gave the first performance of that song as well as ‘Ode du premier jour de mai’ Op. 14 No.2/7 at the Fyvie Hall London on 20 February 1945. Those two songswere published performed and recorded but ‘The LowLands of Holland’ has beenneglected. It comes as close as Berkeley ever got to the English folk song tradition.This edition is based on the copyist’s score at the British Library and includes thecorrections thecomposer provided with it.