Sir Lennox Berkeley, 86; Composer

Sir Lennox Berkeley, a significant British composer influenced by neoclassical music and perhaps best known for his choral “Stabat Mater,” died Tuesday at 86.

Berkeley, who suffered from a heart ailment and a type of Alzheimer’s disease, died in a London hospital of a respiratory infection, said his son, Michael.

Berkeley wrote four operas, chamber music, concertos and four symphonies.

He attended Oxford University where he read French, Old French and philology before devoting himself to music.

He studied under Nadia Boulanger for five years in Paris, where he and Igor Stravinsky became friends, and returned to Britain in 1935, the year of his first major work, the oratorio “Jonah.”

Three years later he produced another choral work, “Domini Est Terra,” then music for string quartets, solo instruments and orchestra. His Symphony No. 1 was completed 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.

His operas were “Nelson,” first performed in 1951; “A Dinner Engagement,” “Ruth” and “Castaway.”