John Mark Ainsley - French Connections - BBC Music Magazine

Lennox Berkeley's Auden settings are by some way the most satisfying items on this disc, from the delicate piano tracery of 'the small birds' singing, to the objects and animals singing 'agreeably of love'. The music is full of life and colour, and with historical distance we can appreciate more readily now the individuality both of Berkeley's harmonies and of his word setting. Jake Heggie's musings on Poulenc are also attractive and even moving.