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Britten Connections A guide for performers and programmers

by Paul Kildea

Britten –Pears Foundation Telephone 01728 451 700 The Red House, Golf Lane, [email protected] , Suffolk, IP15 5PZ www.brittenpears.org Britten Connections A guide for performers and programmers by Paul Kildea

Contents

The twentieth century’s Programming tips for 03 consummate musician 07 13 selected Britten works Britten connected 20 26 Timeline CD sampler tracks The Britten-Pears Foundation is grateful to , Naxos, Nimbus Records, NMC the following for permission to use the Recordings, Onyx Classics. EMI recordings recordings featured on the CD sampler: BBC, are licensed courtesy of EMI Classics, Decca Classics, EMI Classics, , www.emiclassics.com For full track details, 28 Lammas Records, Philharmonic and all label websites, see pages 26-27. Index of featured works

Front cover : Britten in 1938. Photo: Howard Coster © National Portrait Gallery, London. Above: Britten in his composition studio at The Red House, c1958. Photo: Kurt Hutton . 29 Further information Opposite left : a rehearsal, early 1950s. Opposite right : Demonstrating how to make 'slung mugs' sound like raindrops for Noye's Fludde , 1958. Photo: Kurt Hutton. Britten Connections A guide for performers and programmers 03 The twentieth century's consummate musician

In his tweed jackets and woollen ties, and When asked as a boy what he planned to be He had, of course, a great guide and mentor. with his plummy accent, country houses and when he grew up, Britten confidently The English composer began royal connections, looked replied: ‘A composer.’ ‘But what else ?’ was the teaching composition to the teenage Britten every inch the English gentleman. This quite sensible comeback. The adult Britten at exactly the time that his own musical image belied a more modest upbringing in derided this comment and the cultural language was shifting from well-crafted the Suffolk town of Lowestoft, however, philistinism he thought it represented. Yet pastoralism to a more modernist dialect. where he was born in 1913 to a dentist father the fact remains that Britain in the 1920s This gentle pacifist had been left distraught and amateur musician mother. Precocious had no sustained culture, no orchestra by what had taken place on the muddy and single-minded, the young Britten was to rival the Philharmonic, no real pastures of France during the First World perfectly primed to follow in the footsteps engagement with musical , and War, and sought a greater engagement with of the preeminent nineteenth-century no tradition of the composer–conductor the Continental ideas swirling about post - British composers: a chair in one of the dominating the great concert halls and war Europe. Britten was a willing and music colleges or universities, perhaps; opera houses of the land. The boy’s receptive pupil, lapping up the new sounds guest conducting on the circuit and interlocutor was closer to the truth at the and ideas Bridge presented to him, finding ever so occasionally with one of the London time than the adult composer later allowed. himself comfortable in his teacher’s artistic , if only he could get over his milieu, improving his craft all the while. dislike of the podium; a string of honours Yet Britten was determined to change this and pupils, both of diminishing returns; and culture of complacency. And for all his Additionally, he was such a child of his time. a tidy bundle of works, probably not much evident Englishness, he looked not to his He may have thought little of most of the performed following their initial outings. countrymen for inspiration, but to the performances he heard broadcast by the European giants of the Romantic and post- infant BBC – in his diary he daily took a big The real story, however, was very different. Romantic age. His childhood fascination stick to the British orchestras and their And far more intriguing. with the great of Brahms and home-grown conductors, and the music of Beethoven were in his in particular, but with Thomas teenage years replaced with a wide-eyed Beecham and faring little appreciation of Mahler , a skittish adoration better – but he gobbled it up all the same. of Stravinsky , and huge enthusiasm for Berg . At the he hardly Yet it was not only their music that caught bothered with student life and perform - his ear. He began to consider also how they ances: instead he stalked the Queen’s Hall had gone about the business of being a and the BBC’s and composer, and set about emulating them. , sharpening his ear and tongue, stitching the disparate works he encountered into a glorious European tapestry. When in 1934 he visited Vienna for the first time the jig was more or less up. Encountering an orchestra of such luminosity, virtuosity and authority, he decided there and then that his adolescent ‘I wouldn’t have thought musical instincts were correct: standards my sound sensuous, were simply too low in Britain. He was going although I love the clear to be not just a full-time composer: with the example of Vienna and Mahler, of Berg and and the resonant. This, I Stravinsky, with Bridge as his mentor and suppose I’ve learned from WH Auden as his tutor, he was going to be Mozart, Schubert, a composer the like of which had never before produced. Tchaikovsky, Debussy, Stravinsky and others.’ Britten, 1963

Opposite clockwise from top left : Britten and , 1949-50. Britten with , probably taken during the Festival of British Music in , May 1963. Britten rehearsing with for an recital, 1958. Britten with rehearsing in the Organ Room at Glyndebourne, 1946. >> Britten Connections A guide for performers and programmers Britten Connections A guide for performers and programmers 05

Does youth alone explain how he could Opera dominated his career from the early His wartime arrangements of British folk - In short, Britten was the twentieth century’s compose in the space of a few years works as 1940s onwards, itself an extraordinary songs (and his late orchestral work, the Suite consummate musician. His works for film, different as the Ravel -and- Wagner -flecked occurrence given Britain’s musical culture on English Folk Tunes ) were not born of the television, radio, theatre, children, the opera Quatre chansons françaises (1928), the spiky in this period, and it is certainly true that pedagogic and nationalistic impetus that house, the stage, the concert hall and (1932), its debt to Schoenberg ’s words unlocked in him his great gifts as a drove Bartók ’s transcriptions and the church chart some of the century’s great first Kammersymphonie evident, and his storyteller, as the countless brazenly original arrangements, but they were nonetheless troubles and preoccupations – from war to Simple for string orchestra (1934), songs and cycles attest. Yet each genre intended to celebrate Britain’s rich folk sexuality, from morality to religious faith, a plundering of his childhood nursery? How influenced the other. Techniques he heritage. If in the same breath they drew a from loyalty to betrayal. In the decades since is it possible that only one year separates his refined in his made their way into line between Britten and Vaughan Williams his death his music has found even larger showpiece Piano (1938) from his his instrumental works; in turn, the easy and his ilk, whose folk arrangements the audiences, as performers and listeners brooding, slow-burn Concerto (1938–9) virtuosity of his orchestral writing changed newcomer considered pious and clumsy in throughout the world have come to realize – both terrific works with remarkably the face of British opera. In the nine years equal measure, so much the better. So too his universal appeal. Works that failed or different characters, the latter comparable following the 7 June 1945 première of Peter his realizations of Purcell and , misfired in his lifetime have slowly entered to Berg ’s essay in the same genre? Was it Grimes , he composed an additional six whose settings Britten thought clothed the the repertory. Yet there remain virtually fear of youthful indiscretion that made him operas, including his masterpieces English language in the finest cloth. And unknown works of genius, every bit the peer put away in a drawer his miniature Young (1951) and The Turn of the Screw (1954). Yet in too, whose sweet melancholia of the Four Sea Interludes . It is the intention Apollo (1939) after its first performance? If so, this same period he also co-founded the infuses a number of Britten’s instrumental of this guide to familiarize and entice how at exactly the same time did he Aldeburgh Festival (with Pears and the works. Such excavations were responsible for musicians with the other side of Britten, a compose his Sinfonia da , a piece librettist/producer ), formed his reintroducing much so-called early music composer of singular vision, brilliance and of staggering control and vision, the work by own opera company, toured the world as a into the repertory. humanity, who found his true voice as a To a degree he became hostage to his own which he knew his voice was fully formed, peerless accompanist and conductor, and young man, and spoke with it all his life. success. He was in his mere early thirties and those around him knew he had no wrote a string of further works for Pears and when he composed the two works through musical fears? other favoured musicians. When in the which orchestral players, opera lovers, record 1960s he withdrew somewhat from the collectors and children the world over really These works are milestones from one decade opera theatre, he dedicated his time to got to know him: and The Young alone, when his day job was as a gun for hire, producing some of his greatest instrumental Person’s Guide to the Orchestra . Some scribbling scores for leftist documentary and orchestral works: Symphony for audiences then as now never looked much films and theatre productions, and for and Orchestra (1963) and a slew of suites beyond these two great works – the Four altogether more wholesome radio plays. for ; Sea Interludes filleted from the former for In the 1940s he became more even as a misericordium (1963); (1975); concert performances, The Young Person’s composer, producing a series of orchestral String No. 3 (1975). Guide a seat-of-the-pants joyride through works that deserve a more secure place in the different instruments of the orchestra. the repertory: Diversions (1940), his lyrical They were content instead to look upon riposte to Ravel ’s for the these pieces and the important song cycles Left Hand; An American (1941); for his partner, the , as his Prelude and (1943); and his affecting signature works. Yet those who used these overture to (1941). Yet to say pieces as a starting point, not an endpoint, that he became more even is not to discovered a composer of great complexity undervalue the breakout works of the 1930s, and moral authority. They discovered, too, a his Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge of contradictions. (1937) among them. As a fifty-year-old he observed that the dedicatee and subject of this whip-sharp work for string orchestra had taught him ‘that you should find ‘I want to say here, personally, yourself and be true to what you found’. Although Britten worried out loud that that Britten has been for me perhaps he hadn’t quite lived up to the most purely musical Bridge’s exacting expectations of him, he person I have ever met and I nonetheless took this lesson seriously all his life. have ever known. It always seemed to me that music sprang out of his fingers when he played the piano, as it did out of his mind when he composed.’ , 1976

Above : Britten conducting a rehearsal of the Orchestra, 1964. Photo: Elfriede Hanak, courtesy of Decca . Opposite left : Britten on stage with at the US premiere of Peter Grimes at , 1946. Photo: © Ruth Orkin . Opposite right :Britten in Japan playing the sho he bought in Kyoto, 1956. Britten Connections A guide for performers and programmers 07 Britten connected

Heroes and villains Hearing Britten and Mahler programmed Britten and Stravinsky form a great orchestral together is often a revelation. The paring, the programming chemistry deriving Some of Britten’s childhood heroes became alongside Mahler’s Symphony No. 5; Phaedra from the men’s mutual admiration, the villains of his adulthood, although not with Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder ; two early competitiveness, stylistic and chronological before he had learnt all he could from them. symphonies, Mahler’s first and Britten’s overlaps, and the occasional disdain they Beethoven ’s piano and Brahms ’s ; Les Illuminations with felt for each other. Britten’s Sinfonietta is a symphonies informed his youthful musical Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 (using the same natural bedfellow of Stravinsky’s Symphonies vocabulary and set him up for encounters soloist); Britten’s Suite on English Folk Tunes d’instruments à vent or his Mass. Britten’s with the music he admired all his life: with Mahler’s ; Britten’s is a good Mozart , Schubert , Mahler , Schoenberg Ballad of Heroes with Mahler’s Symphony No. companion piece for Stravinsky’s (guardedly), Berg , Stravinsky (waspishly as 2; Britten’s or Sinfonia da or programmed instead of his Requiem time went on) and Shostakovich . He admired Requiem with Mahler’s Symphony No. 7. or Canticum sacrum . Britten’s his contemporaries Walton , Tippett and Noye’s Fludde and Stravinsky’s The Flood offer Berkeley , although by no means uncritically. Britten and Shostakovich are equally good fascinating, complimentary treatments of Bridge was a hero, although not exclusively together. Les Illuminations programmed the same biblical story. And programming for his music. In the 1940s in England he with Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 14 Britten’s Piano Concerto alongside Stravinsky’s encountered the operas of Verdi , which he (dedicated to Britten) contrasts the old Firebird or Rite of Spring presents a riot of thought brilliant and which helped shape Russian’s sombre imagery with the young rhythmic orchestral energy and momentum. his own dramatic works. Brit’s ecstatic vision. There is something incredibly touching about hearing the Putting together Britten and Mozart (which Sinfonia da Requiem followed by he played and conducted incomparably) Shostakovich’s ‘Leningrad’ Symphony, and Britten and Schubert on a concert written at exactly the same time, while programme is an obvious starting point Britten’s in a series for any exploration of Britten’s musical including the two Shostakovich cello influences and overlaps. Yet there are many (and both men’s works for solo other great pairings. cello) gather together the great works of the twentieth century for this instrument. Britten’s complete works for form a thrilling to Shostakovich’s works in this genre.

Opposite clockwise from top left : Britten and Peter Pears. Photo: Brian Seed . Britten at the foot of Verdi’s memorial in , 1971. Photo: John Piper . Britten with , June 1956. >> Britten Connections A guide for performers and programmers Britten Connections A guide for performers and programmers 09

Early works Britten and Britten in love Britten and Britten had a kindred spirit in Francis Poulenc , Britten’s night music who mined popular French music for his A number of pieces composed as Britten was Britten was only seventeen when he Britten’s partnership of almost forty years Blessed with an astute mimic’s ear, Britten songs and parodies, as did The world of night and dreams captivated finding his own voice have been released composed his first ballet, – with the tenor Peter Pears resulted in some first drew on popular music for his own and Ravel. Britten’s songs in many Britten from a fairly young age, and he wrote since his death. These include his Two Portraits a dockside morality tale slightly indebted to of the most extraordinary and important work in the 1930s. Auden had demonstrated ways prefigure William Bolcom ’s whip-smart some of the most affecting and (CD 9 ), his exquisite Stravinsky ’s – while his startlingly vocal music of the last century. From ‘Being the power of parody in his poetry, and cabaret miniatures, while his chamber penned since Chopin ’s time. Quite apart miniatures Quatre chansons françaises (CD 19 ), original The Prince of the Pagodas (CD 40 ), Beauteous’, the sublime, suggestive movement Britten responded immediately in a string textures complement ’s music of from the named works (Moderato and and a number of finely crafted works for teeming with the music he had recently of Les Illuminations (CD 25 ), to the late works of incidental scores and cabaret songs for the 1920s and 1930s. (’s Nocturne, Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal, string quartet. has overseen heard in Bali, is one of the important and and Sacred and Profane, Pears’ the theatre, the latter making their way into arrangement of Britten’s Cabaret Songs for Nocturne (CD 31 ), Night Piece, Um Mitternacht , these releases, rejecting unsuitable works neglected scores of his maturity. In between, voice and artistry was never far from Britten’s the concert repertory. In addition to the voice and cabaret band emphasizes this Nocturnal after John Dowland ), the stillness and editing others as necessary. Matthews Britten wrote two other , Soirées mind. Other works expressly dedicated to Pears well-known Cabaret Songs there are the connection.) Britten’s friend Dmitri and potential of night infuses many of his took his cue from Britten, though, who in the musicales and Matinée musicales , each a include the Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo, settings collected in The Red Cockatoo & Shostakovich made his own forays into scores, including , Diversions last years of his life revisited a number of witty reworking of Rossini , and included The Holy Sonnets of John Donne, the second other songs , which are almost as effective. popular music in the 1930s, as evident in (CD 2 ), Movements for a Concerto early works, including his String Quartet in substantial dance scenes in his operas and fourth Canticles, and the touching The folksy ballads in Paul Bunyan and the his jazz suites and his two piano concertos. (CD 14 ), (CD 4 ), Four Sea Interludes, D (1931) ( CD 12 ), which he edited for (CD 42 ) and Death in Venice . ‘Second Lute Song of the Earl of Essex’ from beautiful, poised ‘Inkslinger’s Love Song’ are Bernstein took Shostakovich’s cue in the A Charm of Lullabies and Lachrymae (CD 8 ). performance and publication. Gloriana . Yet there were so many implicit essays in a popular style, while Peter Grimes 1940s and 1950s, writing some terrific jazz- Yet dance rhythms and forms also influenced Who are the other great composers of night dedications – from all the great opera roles contains one of the great dance-band scenes fused music for full orchestra. Hindemith It is fascinating to see Britten’s emerging Britten in his non-balletic scores, as his Cello music? , naturally, whose to works such as Serenade (CD 4 ) and Noc - in the entire operatic literature – equal to and Krenek experimented with jazz idioms voice in these pieces, as it is to programme Suites attest ( CD 16, 26, 7 ). Enterprising nocturnes influenced many nineteenth- turne (CD 31 ), the remaining three Canticles, that in Berg ’s . Britten’s Clarinet in their art music at around the same time them alongside the composers whose choreographers have long used his music as century Romantics, Liszt and Schumann Winter Words, , Sechs Concerto ( CD 14 ) was conceived for one of that was plundering the influence can be heard in them (see Heroes the basis of their work, from John Cranko’s among them. Mendelssohn ’s incidental Hölderlin-Fragmente, Who are these Children? the best jazz soloists of the century, Benny new sounds of his country for his big and villains ). early choreography for Variations on a music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream is and . He was never a gay- Goodman , which makes it a sibling of Bartók ’s concert works and, soon enough, his opera Theme of Frank Bridge to Hans van Manen’s one of the most celebrated examples of

rights campaigner, but many of his works Contrasts (1940), written at Goodman’s . cl^assic staging of the same work and celebrate homosexual love, however coded, behest for violin, clarinet and piano. More orchestral nocturnal music, an achievement ` Ji rí Kylián's choreograp hy for Sinfonia so he was certainly a gay pioneer. recently harvested the very Debussy equalled in his Trois nocturnes ,

da Requiem (CD 10 ). end of A Midsummer Night’s Dream for influenced to a degree by James Whistler ’s Whose achievement in the last cent^ury can the single Now Until the Break of Day , evocative night paintings. The first There remain, however, many pieces that possibly compare to Britten’s? Janácek and while Jeff Buckley ’s haunting arrangement movement of Shostakovich ’s Violin Concerto have rarely been exploited in this way and , certainly, both of whom of Britten’s Corpus Christi Carol still No. 1 is a nocturne, composed in 1947–8, at which would work brilliantly – not least the were inspired by women to write some of has currency. exactly the same time Britten was writing . These include the moody, the great female songs and roles of the his moonlight-flecked (CD 44 ). ecstatic Violin Concerto ( CD 34 ); the bravura twentieth century, bookends to Britten’s Piano Concerto ( CD 18 ); the Serenade ( CD 4 ); works for the male voice. (Britten had a score the various suites from Pagodas ; the episodic of ‘old magician’s’ to hand Diversions (CD 2 ); the Symphony for Cello and as he wrote Peter Grimes .) Britten knew Orchestra (CD 11 ); the Suite on English Folk little Janácek, although the two composers Tunes (CD 28 ); and his string ( CD 12, complement each other very well – both in 41, 23 ), which dance off the page. the sounds they make and their social obsessions. Programming Strauss’s orchestral songs with Britten’s Spring Symphony (CD 44 ) makes clear the connection – much as the older man’s Tone sit well alongside the younger man’s Piano Concerto ( CD 18 ) or (CD 1 ). ‘Night and Silence, these are two of the things I cherish most.’ Britten, 1969

‘Honestly you are the greatest artist that ever was ... What have I done to deserve such an artist and man to write for?’ Britten writing to Pears, 1974

Opposite : Dance sequence from the first production of Death in Venice , 1974. Photo: Nigel Luckhurst . >> Britten Connections A guide for performers and programmers Britten Connections A guide for performers and programmers 11

Children Britten and war Britten in America Any of these works programmed alongside Britten’s travels elsewhere and his nod towards Schubert – whose Copland ’s symphonies and orchestral works, larger cycles greatly influenced Britten’s No other composer in the last century wrote A staunch pacifist from childhood, Britten - Britten lived in North America between 1939 or those of the more expressly modernist Britten first visited the Continent as a own song cycles – and the German Lieder so often and so inventively for children. From from the mid-1930s onwards used his music and early 1942, most of it spent in New York and , helps twenty-year-old and in the final year of his he played so incomparably. his early settings of Walter de la Mare (Three as a soapbox to protest against the iniquity or on Long Island. The people and music he highlight the debt Britten felt to the life made a short trip to Bergen. In between Two-Part Songs) to his late, harrowing of war. The artistic crowd with which he encountered there had a huge impact on his American sounds and ideas he encountered he travelled to a great number of countries In Japan he encountered traditional Noh Children’s Crusade (CD 36 ), Britten created a walked did much the same, and so Britten own compositions. In this period he wrote in this incredibly fruitful period. Moreover, in a handful of continents, absorbing their theatre and was hugely impressed by the body of exceptional works of varying difficulty cut his teeth writing scores for anti-war films Canadian Carnival (CD 20 ), An American some of the basic principles of the Eastern culture and music. Even those countries that economy of means and the disproportionate and scale. His (CD 43 ) are and plays. Such ideas soon enough seeped Overture (CD 38 ), Paul Bunyan and its terrific, music Britten heard in America and later in foxed or disappointed him left their mark impact of the drama. These dramas and playful, skittish songs, while his Ceremony of into his concert music, including the brilliant , discarded overture, later orchestrated by the Far East also influenced the American on his music. their music percolated away for some years, Carols is a showpiece for children’s voices. freewheeling (CD 5 ) Colin Matthews. In addition, he planned the minimalist composers in the second half of finally revealing their influence in Britten’s The greatest seismic shift in his compositions is full of dance tunes and spiky and its slighter follow-up (although still clarinet concerto that Matthews later the century. To hear these works programmed 1964 Church Parable and its followed his 1955/56 travels through East dissonances, whereas his setting of Psalm teeming with ideas and anger), Ballad of conjured so well from his sketches. All of together is a fascinating experience. two successors. The Japanese story had 150 is a demonstration of his great practicality , Heroes (CD 35 ). There is also, of course, his these works are infused with the open-plains Asia. He had known of Balinese music been transformed to an English setting, a work scored more or less for whatever powerful Sinfonia da Requiem (CD 10 ). In sounds Copland was then exploring in his since meeting the composer and but so many other aspects of the original - instruments are to hand. Boys’ voices are at addition to his extraordinary public protest own music. ethnomusicologist Colin McPhee early in drama remained. More, the orchestral the heart of the Spring Symphony (CD 44 ), of 1962, , and his television his time in America, and used these magical economy displayed in the Japanese theatre – War Requiem, A Midsummer Night’s Dream opera , Britten composed a In America he also completed Les Illuminations sounds in The Turn of the Screw – much as a few traditional instruments – chimed with and , although increasingly handful of anti-war works, including Who (CD 25 ), a return to the French language of Debussy incorporated them into his works Britten’s desire to pare down his music children’s voices are used in these works to are these Children? and Children’s Crusade his childhood Quatre chansons françaises after encountering at the Paris to its most basic elements, which great effect. is a touching (CD 36 ). It is also difficult to listen to Peter (CD 19 ), and composed his Seven Sonnets of World exhibition in 1889. Hearing these characterized his style more and more children’s opera, as is Noye’s Fludde (CD 29 ), Grimes without discerning the sounds and Michelangelo. Auden egged him on in his sounds in the flesh, though, overwhelmed as the 1960s progressed. while his late Welcome Ode is a spritely work savagery of warfare. choice of texts and poets, although the shy him and spurred him on to new heights in for young voices and orchestra. composer also realized it was easier to his ballet The Prince of the Pagodas (CD 40 ). In this same period Britten became intimate Unlike Elgar ’s imperialistic from express certain thoughts in a foreign These sounds and harmonies helped shape with the cellist Mstislav Rostropovich , who the First World War, none of this music dates. tongue. No such disguise was needed for and colour all his remaining stage works to introduced him to the music and customs of Like other wartime works – Haydn ’s Missa in his settings of folksongs from France, a greater or lesser extent. and Armenia. Britten’s Pushkin song tempore belli , Shostakovich ’s ‘Leningrad’ Ireland and the Southern Appalachians cycle The Poet’s Echo is only one consequence Symphony, Tippett ’s A Child of Our Time, in this period and later: these were just Britten’s Songs from the Chinese were also of this strong friendship and exposure to Prokofiev ’s so-called ‘War Sonatas’ – and good material, which he transformed in composed in the wake of his Asian travels, Soviet culture. those elegies to a lost friend or epoch – versions for voice and piano and in his although these represented more Britten’s Bridge ’s Piano , Schoenberg ’s A artful arrangements for voice and general interest in other cultures than direct Survivor from , Penderecki ’s Mozartian orchestra. exposure or tribute to the music of China. Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima, The same cannot be said of Sechs Hölderlin- Strauss ’s and valedictory Fragmente, his only setting of German text Vier Letzte Lieder – Britten invested his (apart from the song Um Mitternacht ) works with a universal message, timeless in its resonance.

‘The symphony orchestra . . . has become to the twentieth century what the virtuoso singer was to the eighteenth. In skill and quality of sound, as is now universally recognized, the great American orchestras have no superior.’ Opposite: Britten's conscientious objector's certificate, 1943. Britten, 1942 Britten Connections A guide for performers and programmers 13 Programming tips for selected Britten works

An American Overture Symphonic Suite ‘Gloriana’ Orchestral (1941) 10’ op. 53a (1953) 26’ (CD 38) For orchestra and tenor solo ( ad lib .), in four movements Canadian Carnival Left behind in America when the composer Text: Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex (Kermesse Canadienne) returned to England in early 1942, (CD 42) op. 19 (1939) 14’ unperformed and forgotten, An American (CD 20) Overture is Britten’s tribute to his adopted Determined not to give up on Gloriana with - country. In it he juxtaposes his friend Aaron out a fight (a conviction vindicated in recent A product of Britten’s travels to North Copland’s open-prairie sounds with the decades), Britten fashioned this suite from America, infused with the French Canadian orchestral techniques he had perfected in the opera soon after its troubled premiere, folksongs he heard in the Laurentians, his Sinfonia da Requiem . An apt counter- incorporating the plangent, lyrical ‘Lute Song’ La perdriole and Alouette among them. point to the music of Copland , Bernstein and the ‘Courtly Dances’ – thrilling orchestral Notwithstanding these local influences, and Ives. show pieces, full of Elizabethan sounds and this effective concert opener is a close instrumental colours. relative of the Sinfonia da Requiem , which 3(III=picc).3.3(III= cl).3—4.3.3.1— was already occupying Britten’s thoughts. timp.perc(2)—2harps(II ad lib .)—cel(=pft 3.3.3.3—4.3.3.1—timp.perc(4)— It works brilliantly in concert as a curtain- ad lib .)—strings harp—strings raiser to the larger works of Copland or Ives. The tenor voice in the second movement may be replaced by an 2(II=picc).2(II=ca).2.2—4.3(III ad lib .).3.1— Boosey & Hawkes timp.perc(2)—harp—strings Men of Goodwill Boosey & Hawkes (1947) 8’ Variations on a Christmas Carol Pas de six from ‘The Prince of the Pagodas ’ op. 57a (1956) 12’ Sinfonia da Requiem An orchestral rhapsody on ‘God Rest Ye (CD 40) op. 20 (1940; rev. 1940) 20’ Merry, Gentlemen’, with variations that Three movements do not wander too far from home, but The Prince of the Pagodas is a Britten’s longest (CD 10) which nonetheless demonstrate Britten’s orchestral work, a dazzling score influenced considerable flair in this genre. by the music the composer encountered on his recent travels through South East Asia. A key work in Britten’s development, full of 3(III=picc).2.2.2—4.2.3.1—timp.perc(2)— A good substitute on concert programmes Mahlerian effects, brilliant brass fanfares, harp—strings for the Stravinsky ballets and an interesting a trudging , and virtuosic Faber Music point of comparison to the same composer’s orchestral writing. Dedicated to the memory neo-classical works. of his parents, its programme is equally that of the catastrophe of the war that was then 3(III=picc).3.3(III=cl in E ).3—4.3(III=tpt in engulfing Europe and the Pacific. It has a D).3.1—timp.perc(2)—harp—pft—strings cumulative power to it, resolving in the third Boosey & Hawkes movement in a radiant apotheosis. A good alternative or complement in concert to Shostakovich ’s symphonies.

3(III=picc & bass fl).3.3(III=cl in E ). sax ( ad lib .).3—6 (V, VI ad lib .).3.3.1— timp.perc(4)—2harps (II ad lib .)—pft—strings Boosey & Hawkes

Opposite clockwise from top : Peter Pears in Canada, 1939. Britten in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire conducting Mstislav Rostropovich and the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra in the first performance of the Symphony for Cello and Orchestra, March 1964. Britten with after a performance of Sinfonia da Requiem given by the Boston Symphony, conducted by Koussevitzky, January 1942. >> Britten Connections A guide for performers and programmers Britten Connections A guide for performers and programmers 15

The Building of the House Temporal Variations Violin Concerto Diversions Symphony for Cello and Orchestra op. 79 (1967) 6’ Concertos (1936) 15’ op. 15 (1939; rev. 1950, 1954, 1965) 31’ op. 21 (1940; rev. 1950, 1954) 30’ op. 68 (1963; rev. 1964) 34’ Overture with or without chorus For oboe and string orchestra, in nine For violin and orchestra, For piano (left hand) and orchestra For cello and orchestra, Text: Psalm 127, adapted by movements (orch. Colin Matthews) in three movements (CD 2) in four movements (CD 22) Double Concerto (CD 33) (CD 34) (CD 11) (1932) 25’ A set of variations on a theme, commissioned Full of the sounds that would soon enough For violin, and orchestra, Colin Matthew’s evocative of A work of real originality and fantasy. Less by the one-armed Paul Wittgenstein , Although a showpiece for the cello soloist, characterize Death in Venice, this concert in three movements the work’s piano accompaniment – seeped hidebound by structural conventions than Diversions boasts a remarkably diverse this is nonetheless a tightly constructed opener, with its simple chorale enveloped in (CD 9) in the style of Britten’s own string writing of the Piano Concerto, the Violin Concerto collection of styles and moods. There is a symphonic essay, with much of the work’s breathless, rhapsodic violin writing, was the mid-1930s – has introduced a new represents a real milestone in Britten’s touch of de Falla ’s Nights in the Gardens of power to be found in the orchestral writing. written for the 1967 inauguration of the From the same year as his opus 1, Britten’s concerto into the repertory, a welcome development. The orchestral sound world is to the ‘Nocturne’, and the example The final – spelled out with concert hall at . It is an Double Concerto is a mature showpiece for substitute in concert for Strauss ’s Oboe new and assured, the solo writing brilliant of Ravel ’s concerto for the same forces is great invention by the orchestra – is a unknown gem, its impact equally strong solo violin and viola. Its Mozartian orchestra Concerto, composed nine years later. and idiomatic, and the cumulative impact never far away. barnstorming marriage of ground bass whether the chorale is played by organ or reinforces the concerto’s classical structure, is considerable. Little wonder Janine Jansen and theme and variations. The relatively sung by . although the harmonic language is all Faber Music is a recent and enthusiastic champion of the 2(II=picc).2(II=ca).2.alto sax( ad lib. ).3— slim scoring harks back to that of the great Britten’s. A neo-classical work, in which work (as she is of the Double Concerto). A 4.2.3.1—timp.perc(3 or 2)— Romantic cello concertos, to which this is a

Chorus (SATB) ( ad lib .)—2.2.2.2—2.2.0.1— Piano Concerto harp—strings stunning, welcome alternative on concert worthy successor. A good alte^rnative to fanfare-like horn solos punctuate spinning- op. 13 (1938; rev. 1945) 33’ timp.perc—org ( ad lib .)—strings programmes to the better known Boosey & Hawkes concertos by Schumann , Dvorák , Prokofiev , top solo lines, from a time in Britten’s life For piano and orchestra, Faber Music Shostakovich , Berg and Sibelius concertos. Shostakovich , Saint-Saëns and Elgar . when Stravinsky ’s music had captured his in four movements imagination, only months before Berg ’s (CD 13) 3(II,III=picc).2(II=ca).2.2—4.3.3.1— 2(II=picc).2.2(II=bass cl).2(II=dbn)—2.2.1(=ten music would do the same. Movements for a Clarinet Concert0 timp.perc(2)—harp—strings trbn).1—timp.perc(2)—strings Suite on English Folk Tunes A virtuosic showcase for Britten as soloist as (1942) 18’ Boosey & Hawkes Boosey & Hawkes ‘A time there was . . .’ 2(II=picc).2.2.2—2.2.0.0— much as composer, with the influence of For clarinet and orchestra, in three op. 90 (1974) 14’ timp.perc—strings Prokofiev ’s successful essays in this genre – movements (orch. Colin Matthews) Five movements Music Ltd and Liszt ’s before him – keenly felt. Younger (CD 14) (CD 28) , such as Steven Osborne and Dejan Lachrymae Lazic, have in recent years championed the op. 16 (1939) 10’ Britten commenced work on this concerto op. 48a (1950; rev. 1970; orch.1976) 15’ A late work that nonetheless recreates the piece, convinced it is unjustly neglected. For piano, string quartet in his final months in America, intending it For viola and small string orchestra freewheeling optimism of Britten’s and string orchestra for the exceptional musician Benny (CD 8) orchestral works of the 1940s, when the 2(I,II=picc).2(II=ca).2.2—4.2.3.1— (CD 27) Goodman . Colin Matthews has fashioned composer first discovered the brilliance and timp.perc(2)—harp—strings a ‘what might have been’ from Britten’s Another Britten meditation on a song by potential of English folksong. It is full of Boosey & Hawkes Written in the final flushes of love or sketches, an unmistakably Brittenesque Dowland , this is an extraordinarily touching open-stringed folk dances, the sounds of infatuation, Young Apollo uses a line from score of the period, full of poised solo and affecting set of variations. Its coup de pipe and tabor, and a final movement of Keats ’s Hyperion as a classical disguise: ‘and writing and a still, nocturnal slow théâtre is in placing the theme at the end of pure Mahlerian melancholy, a composer it lo! from all his limbs Celestial Glory dawn’d: movement of considerable beauty. A great the piece, following the many hints and would sit next to brilliantly in concert. Its he was a god!’ It is a slight yet muscular, counterpoint to Mozart ’s Clarinet Concerto, snippets along the way, which is stated with dedication to the memory of the radiant piece, and counts pianist Paul Lewis and would be a good fit in a programme regal simplicity. Britten took much care over free-spirited Percy Grainger is fitting. among its fervent advocates. featuring the last century’s jazz-inspired the virtuosic solo writing: it was his own composers. instrument, after all. It counts the Walton 2(II=picc).2(II=ca).2.2—2.2.0.0— Faber Music and Bartók concertos as its siblings. timp.perc(2)—harp—strings 2.2.1(=bass cl).2—4.2.3.0— Faber Music timp.perc—harp—strings strings (senza vn I) Faber Music Boosey & Hawkes

‘Stravinsky once said that one must work perpetually at one’s technique. But what is technique? Schoenberg’s ... is often a tremendous elaboration. My technique is to tear all the waste away; to achieve perfect clarity of expression, that is my aim.’ Britten, 1963 >> Britten Connections A guide for performers and programmers Britten Connections A guide for performers and programmers 17

Spring Symphony For tenor and solos, Les Illuminations A Charm of Lullabies Chorus and op. 44 (1949) 45’ small chorus (SATB), string quartet Solo voice op. 18 (1939) 21’/30’ op. 41 (1947) 12’ orchestra For , and tenor solos, and orchestra and orchestra For high voice and string orchestra, with For mezzo-soprano solo and chorus (SATB), boys’ choir and orchestra, Text: Patrick Wilkinson (in Latin) three extra songs orchestra (arr. Colin Matthews) in four movements (CD 30) (orch. Colin Matthews): ‘Phrase’, Text: , Robert Burns, Robert Text: Anon., Spenser, Nashe, Peele, ‘Aube’, À Une Raison’ Greene, Thomas Randolph, John Philip Ballad of Heroes Clare, Milton, Herrick, Vaughan, Auden, From the same stable as the War Requiem, Quatre chansons françaises Text: Arthur Rimbaud (in French) (CD 17) op. 14 (1939) 15’ Barnfield, Blake, Beaumont, Fletcher the Cantata misericordium is another of (1928) 13’ (CD 25) For tenor (or soprano) solos, chorus (SATB) (CD 44) Britten’s many parables. Written for the For high voice and orchestra A welcome addition to a relatively small and orchestra, in three movements centenary of the Red Cross, this dramatic Text: Victor Hugo, Paul Verlaine Exquisite miniatures, drawn together as a repertory. Colin Matthews has crafted Text: Randall Swingler, W.H. Auden telling of the biblical story of the Good (in French) cycle for soprano or tenor and string Britten’s five lullabies for mezzo-soprano (CD 35) A riotous reaffirmation of Britten’s roots, Samaritan was intended in part as a strong (CD 19) orchestra, in which Britten pays tribute once and piano into a unified orchestral cycle. the Spring Symphony combines all of rejoinder to the century’s catastrophic more to the sounds and colours of French A good alternative to Elgar ’s ubiquitous Unjustly neglected, Ballad of Heroes is an Britten’s favourite things: fine English poetry, anti-Semitism. A powerful piece, full of Delicate, sometimes ecstatic songs by a music and language. Matthews slipped on Sea Pictures . eloquent to both the period in soloists for him to spoil, boys’ voices. It is an beautiful, often plaintive writing for precocious teenager, hued with the sounds Britten’s shoes for his recent orchestration which it was written and Britten’s style and uncompromisingly joyful work, with none chorus and soloists, Cantata misericordium of Wagner , the colours of Debussy , and the of three poems sketched and then discarded 2.2.2(II=bass cl).2—2.0.0.0— preoccupations at the time. The influence of of the fustiness that characterizes many contains striking resonances with poetic rhetoric of Mahler , but unmistakably by the composer to produce these stand- harp—strings Mahler is strong throughout, although the English oratorios from the first half of the Stravinsky ’s Latin works. the work of Britten. It works especially well alone orchestral songs. A great alternative Boosey & Hawkes closest connection – not least through its century, and with a final movement every when programmed alongside these or counterpoint to Berlioz ’s Les nuits d’été . opening funeral march and subsequent bit as th rilling as that of The Young Person’s timp—harp—pft—strings influential composers. dance of death – is with Britten’s Sinfonia Guide to the Orchestra . A fitting (English) Boosey & Hawkes Boosey & Hawkes 2.1.3(I=cl in A, III=bass cl).2—4.0.0.0— Nocturne da Requiem of the following year. alternativ e to Orff ’s . perc—harp—pft—strings op. 60 (1958) 25’ For tenor solo, seven obbligato instruments 3(II=picc).2.ca(=ob III).2.cl in E .2.dbn(=bn 3(III=picc and alto fl).3.3.3—4.3.3.1.cow- Faber Music Praise We Great Men Serenade and string orchestra III)—4.2.3.1—timp.perc(2)—harp—strings horn—timp.perc(4)—2harps—strings (1976) 8’ Our Hunting Fathers op. 31 (1943) 24’/27’ Text: Shelley, Tennyson, Coleridge, Middleton, Off-stage ( ad lib .): 3tpt, sd Boosey & Hawkes The work may be performed in a For soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor and op. 8 (1936; rev. 1961) 27’ For tenor, horn and strings, with one extra Wordsworth, Owen, Keats, Shakespeare reduced orchestration bass solos, chorus (SATB) and orchestra Symphonic cycle for high voice and orchestra song: ‘Now sleeps the crimson petal’ (CD 31) Boosey & Hawkes Text: Text: Anon, Thomas Ravenscroft, W.H. Auden Text: Charles Cotton, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Cantata academica, basiliense (CD 24) (CD 5) William Blake, Anon., Ben Jonson, Britten’s bookend to his earlier Serenade , in op. 62 (1959) 21’ (CD 4) which the world of sleep, dreams and For soprano, alto, tenor and bass An unfinished fragment when Britten died, Britten’s breakaway -cycle – nightmares is charted with great drama. solos, chorus (SATB) and orchestra Praise We Great Men was subsequently ‘my Op. 1 alright’ as he said at the time – a On home territory now after Les Illuminations , The cycle’s connection to Mahler is Text: from the charter of Basle crafted into a surprisingly vibrant piece meditation on humankind’s relationship Britten’s tribute here is to England’s great formalized in its dedication to his widow University and by Bernhard Wyss (in Latin) by Colin Matthews . It is a poised setting of with animals, full of ageless political bite, poets and pastoral traditions. It is a Alma, yet the great composer’s musical (CD 1) Sitwell ’s poem, encased in exquisite and virtuosic orchestral writing that showpiece equally for tenor and horn, footprints are ever discernable. Orchestral orchestral details. prefigures the Sinfonia da Requiem . Equally each playing off the other with great musicians love playing this: each obbligato An occasional work, written to commemorate strong when performed by tenor or soprano, wit and beauty. instrument forms a perfect colloquy the 500th anniversary of Basle University, 3(II, III=picc).2(II=ca).2(II=bass cl).2— the cycle was Britten’s first concert-hall with the voice. Cantata academica effortlessly transcends 4.2.2(or 1).0—timp.perc(2)— collaboration with Auden , his dramatic, Boosey & Hawkes the circumstances of its commission. It is a harp—pft—strings lyrical response to 1930s Continental fl, ca, cl, bn, hn, harp, timp—strings dramatic piece, in which many ideas of the Faber Music modernism and politics. Works brilliantly in Boosey & Hawkes War Requiem are tried out, with concert alongside the expressionist scores Fourteen Folk Songs conspicuous impact. of Berg and Schoenberg , and the more (1942–1955) 16’ political symphonies of Shostakovich . Arranged for voice and orchestra 2(II=picc).2.2.2—4.2.3.1—timp.perc(4)— Texts in English and French 2harps—pft(=cel ad lib .)—strings 2(II=picc).2(II=ca).1.cl in E (=bass cl).alto (CD 6) Boosey & Hawkes sax.2—4.2.3.1—timp.perc(2)— harp—strings Few of those who admire Britten’s folksong Cantata misericordium Boosey & Hawkes arrangements know the composer’s own op. 69 (1963) 20’ orchestral versions, in which the humour and colour of the piano accompaniments are taken to a completely new level. These are great encores, obviously, but also work well as a programmed bracket of songs.

Boosey & Hawkes

‘No, no; you great composer, I little composer.’ Dmitri Shostakovich >> Britten Connections A guide for performers and programmers Britten Connections A guide for performers and programmers 19

Phaedra The Golden Vanity Quartettino Sonata in C op. 93 (1975) 15’ Works involving op. 78 (1966) 17’ Chamber (1930) 16’ op. 65 (1961; rev. 1961) 18’ Dramatic cantata for mezzo-soprano children Vaudeville for boys and piano music For string quartet, For cello and piano, and small orchestra Text: , after the in three movements in five movements Text: Robert Lowell, after Racine’s Phèdre old English ballad (CD 32) (CD 39) (CD 13) (CD 21) Friday Afternoons Britten’s works for string quartet chart his Faber Music Boosey & Hawkes Phaedra could rightly be considered Britten’s op. 7 (1934) 22’ A children’s Billy Budd, The Golden Vanity is development as a composer. It’s all there – final opera – a short work, in which the Twelve children’s songs with a work of great charm and pathos. It is not from the continental preoccupations in his death of the incestuous, mythological piano accompaniment difficult to sing, yet it packs a musical and Quartettino (1930), to the emergence of Phantasy in First Suite for Cello Phaedra, wife of Theseus, is played out in Text: Anon., Thackeray, Taylor, dramatic punch. Britten’s own unmistakable voice in his first (1932; rev. 1932) 11’ op. 72 (1964) 22’ real time. The work’s debt to the Baroque Udall, Walton, Farjeon string quartet (1941) and his debt to Purcell For string (2 vn, 2va, vc) (CD 16) cantata is apparent, not least in the (CD 43) Faber Music in his second (1945), to his String Quartet (CD 37) recitatives accompanied by harpsichord, No. 3, written one year before his death, a Faber Music yet its language shows Britten at his most A collection of varied miniatures, each restless, troubled, profound work. of which demonstrates Britten’s great Faber Music vital and lyrical, one eye on Schoenberg ’s Children’s Crusade empathy with children and their voices. The suites for solo cello were a product of . It works brilliantly in op. 82 (1969) 19’ a more confined period in the composer’s Second Suite for Cello concert alongside Handel and Bach. Ballad for children’s voices Boosey & Hawkes life, yet they too show a marked evolution op. 80 (1967) 22’ and orchestra Alla marcia timp.perc(2)—hpd—strings in his thinking. Five movements Text: Bertolt Brecht (German and (1933) 3’ Faber Music For string quartet (CD 26) English, trs. Hans Keller) The chamber works have remarkably varied Noye’s Fludde (CD 15) (CD 36) lives these days – from the complete quartet Faber Music op. 59 (1958) 50’ cycle performed by the Belcea and Brodsky For adults’ and children’s voices, children’s It is a bleak landscape these fifty-odd Polish Faber Music quartets at the Aldeburgh Festival in 2002, chorus (SATB), chamber ensemble and orphans tread. It is 1939, and their country to their appropriation as ballet scores. children’s orchestra and families have been destroyed by war. They are dramatic, virtuosic, visual, often Third Suite for Cello Text: from the Chester Miracle Play They set off in search of peace, yet their profound essays in their genres. Three Divertimenti op. 87 (1971; rev. 1974) 22’ (CD 29) journey is marked by starvation, a criminal (1933–1936) 12’ Nine movements trial, and a funeral: adult territory not so far For string quartet (CD 7) A touching retelling of the biblical story of from Golding ’s Lord of the Flies . There are (CD 3) Noah, to be performed by children and strong solo parts for children, and the Faber Music adults, with powerful interventions from ingenious orchestral sounds – of war, of Faber Music the audience. dogs barking – round out this atmospheric tale. There is simply no other piece like it Professional ensemble: trbl recorder— String Quartet No. 3 for children. timp—pft (four hands).org—string quintet String Quartet No. 1 in D op. 94 (1975; rev.1975) 28’ 6 solo perc—tutti perc—2pft— op. 25 (1941) 26’ Five movements Amateur/children’s orchestra: desc rec chamber or electronic org Four movements (CD 23) (2 parts), trbl recs—bugles in B — (CD 12) 12 handbells in E —perc—strings Faber Music Faber Music Boosey & Hawkes Boosey & Hawkes

String Quartet No. 2 in C op. 36 (1945) 31’ Three movements (CD 41)

Boosey & Hawkes

‘When Phaedra arrived, I was overwhelmed by its passion and feeling. Even more awesome was to collaborate with the composer on it, to create the interpretation in his presence. That moment is mine for ever.’ Pears (p.21) Britten Connections A guide for performers and programmers Britten Connections A guide for performers and programmers 21

Our Hunting Fathers, op. 8; Temporal Variations

Joins the staff of the GPO Britten's family home in View from the upstairs of Britten, aged 14, at the home The Royal College of Music, Lowestoft: 21 Kirkley Cliff Road. Britten's family home in of Frank Bridge in 1928, at London, around 1930. Film Unit. Signs publishing The ground floor was his Lowestoft, looking out across work on a composition exercise. contract with Boosey & father's dental surgery. the North Sea, 1922. Drawing by Marjorie Fass. Hawkes. Attends ISCM Festival in Barcelona Born in Lowestoft on 22 Receives Stainer and Is 'knocked sideways' Passes Grade VIII piano Quatre chansons françaises Quartettino Phantasy; Father dies in Lowestoft months before Civil War. November, feast day of Barrett's Dictionary of hearing Frank Bridge's exam with honours, and Double Concerto while Britten is attending Begins keeping a detailed Leaves Gresham's and St Cecilia. Musical Terms for his orchestral suite The Sea receives edition of International Society of Start of Spanish Civil War. diary. Ahead of first lesson wins scholarship to Royal Three Two-part Songs ninth birthday, and in . Beethoven Piano Sonatas Contemporary Music Germany occupies First World War 1914-18. with Bridge draws up a College of Music (RCM) published by Oxford makes immediate use as a birthday present (ISCM) festival in Florence. Rhineland. Lowestoft bombed from of it in his own music. Death of Puccini. from Miss Astle. list of 160 compositions in London. University Press, Britten's Later visits Vienna and sea and air during the war. to date. Enters Gresham's first published work. meets Erwin Stein. BBC TV inaugurated. Sibelius, Symphony No. 7 General Strike in Britain. School in Norfolk, board - Stravinsky, Symphony

Stravinsky, ^ ing away from home. of Psalms Shostakovich, Bartók, Music for Strings, Janácek, The Cunning Puccini, Turandot Lady of Mtsensk Percussion and Little Vixen Schoenberg, Variations for Orchestra > > > > > > > > > 1913 1920 1922 1924 1926 1928 1930 1932 1934 1936 1919 1921 1923 1925 1927 1929 1931 1933 1935 1937 > > > > > > > > > >

Earliest attempt at Starts attending South Ravel, L'enfant et Hears The Rite of Spring Alla marcia Friday Afternoons, op. 7 composition: a song Lodge Peparatory School les sortilèges in a BBC broadcast, entitled 'Do you no that in Lowestoft, and finding it 'bewildering , op. 2, Starts working for the my Daddy has gone to also begins private Berg, Wozzeck and terrifying. I didn't included in a BBC concert GPO Film Unit, writing London today'. viola lessons with really enjoy it, but I think of contemporary music, music for documentary Audrey Alston. it's incredibly marvelous Britten's first broadcast films. Meets WH Auden. Treaty of Versaille signed. & arresting'. work. Completes studies and leaves RCM. Nuremberg Laws passed Elgar, in Germany. Britten playing the piano at Britten in 1927-28 with his Some of the pocket scores Britten with Frank and Ethel home, aged around 7. parents, to whose memory through which the teenage invades Ethiopia. Bridge in Paris, 1937. he later dedicated Britten expanded his musical Starts piano lessons with Sinfonia da Requiem . horizons. Photo: Nigel Luckhurst. Gershwin, Porgy and Bess Miss Ethel Astle at his pre-prep school Is introduced to Mother dies. Buys the Old in Lowestoft. Frank Bridge, who Mill, Snape, with legacy agrees to give him and has it converted. composition lessons. Gets to know Peter Pears while helping to sort out British Broadcasting the effects of Peter Burra, Corporation (BBC) a mutual friend killed in established by a plane crash. Royal Charter.

Holst, Timeline Bridge , Enter Spring >> Britten Connections A guide for performers and programmers Britten Connections A guide for performers and programmers 23

Britten with Paul Wittgenstein. Britten at the Old Mill, Snape. Programme book for the first Britten and Pears in Venice, Britten and Peter Pears Aldeburgh Festival. September 1954. in Bali, 1956.

Piano Concerto, op. 13 Sinfonia da Requiem, op. 20; (Sketches used in) Begins the composition The Rape of Lucretia With Pears and Eric Lachrymae , op. 48a NBC televises Billy Budd : The Turn of the Screw Visits Japan and Bali Diversions , op. 21 Movements for a sketch of Peter Grimes at premieres at Crozier establishes the Britten's first opera to be premiere in Venice. during a tour of the Far Moves into the Old Mill, Clarinet Concerto the Old Mill . Glyndebourne. Aldeburgh Festival of Start of the Korean War. broadcast on television. East, and is impressed where Aaron Copland is Committee for the Music and the Arts. Boulez, Le marteau sans by Noh theatre and an early visitor. Begins Encouragement of Music Returns to England with CEMA becomes the Arts US tests hydrogen bomb maître music. regular performing and the Arts (CEMA) set Pears and registers as a Council, set up to and UK announces that partnership with Pears. up to improve British Conscientious Objector. distribute public money is has an atomic bomb. morale during wartime. to the arts independently The Anschluss in Austria. of the government. Cage, 4’ 33”

Copland, Symphony No. 3 > > > > > > > > > > 1938 1940 1942 1944 1946 1948 1950 1952 1954 1956 1939 1941 1943 1945 1947 1949 1951 1953 1955 1957 > > > > > > > > > >

Serenade, op. 31 A Charm of Lullabies, Billy Budd commissioned Symphonic Suite Communist countries op. 41 ; Men of Goodwill as part of the Festival 'Gloriana', op. 53a sign Warsaw Pact. Gives wartime recitals of Britain. with Pears and others Moves to Aldeburgh, Coronation opera for the Council for the buying Crag House on Gloriana . Encouragement of Music the seafront overlooking celebrates the end of and the Arts (CEMA). the North Sea. Co-founds post-war austerity. Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Britten playing tennis at the . London's Royal Festival The Red House. Hall opens on the Britten on the deck of the Britten with WH Auden in New Britten with Kenneth Green, Eric Britten at the in Death of Stalin. SS Ausonia , May-June 1939. York Crozier and at Partition of India. after the premiere South Bank. Sadler's Wells Theatre during of Spring Symphony at the 1949 Premiere of The Prince of preparations for the premiere Holland Festival. of Peter Grimes , 1945. the Pagodas . Moves to Ballad of Heroes , op. 14; String Quartet No. 1 in D, The Red House, Aldeburgh. Violin Concerto, op. 15; op. 25; An American String Quartet No. 2 Spring Symphony , op. 44 Young Apollo , op. 16; Overture Russian Sputnik in C, op. 36 Les Illumunations , op. 18; Mao Zedong proclaims Writes first opera, Paul satellite launched. Canadian Carnival , op.19 Premiere of Peter Grimes , the People's Republic of Bunyan , with by Bernstein, West Side Story 7 June. Visits, and China . In May, sets sail with Pears WH Auden. performs at, liberated for North America on Stockhausen, Attack on Pearl Harbour Belsen concentration the SS Ausonia , arriving in brings US into WWII. camp with Yehudi Quebec. When Britain Menuhin, 27 July. declares war on Germany, Shostakovich, Symphony No. 7, dedicated to the the pair -by then in the War in Europe ends, May. besieged Leningrad US and a couple - are US drops atomic bombs advised to remain. Tippett, A Child of Our Time on Hiroshima and , August. >> Britten Connections A guide for performers and programmers Britten Connections A guide for performers and programmers 25

Britten conducting a rehearsal of Britten with in Britten conducting a rehearsal of Britten with Peter Pears, his A Midsummer Night's Dream in The Red House garden. A Midsummer Night's Dream in partner for nearly four decades, Aldeburgh's Jubilee Hall. Aldeburgh's Jubilee Hall. towards the end of the composer's life. Photo: Victor Parker.

Noye's Fludde, op. 59; Premiere of A Midsummer War Requiem premiere First Suite for Cello, op. 72 The Golden Vanity, op. 78 Warsaw Pact invasion of Shooting of State Nixon visits China. Suite on English Folk Praise We Great Men Nocturne, op. 60 Night's Dream , written to in the new . students protesting Tunes, op. 90 celebrate the extension Cathedral. Premiere of Curlew River . Cultural revolution against US invasion of Created a Life Peer, Baron of the Jubilee Hall as a Conducts Cello Symphony announced in China. Assassination of Martin Cambodia. Pears' Britten of Aldeburgh, in larger venue for the Cuban missile crisis. in Moscow. Luther King Jr. debut in Death in Venice . June; dies at home in The Aldeburgh Festival. Henze, El Cimmaron Red House, 4 December. , ‘Love Me Do’ Nelson Mandela Protests in London Resignation of Richard jailed in South Africa. against Vietnam War. Nixon over Watergate.

Birtwistle, Rostropovich and family go into exile in the US. > > > > > > > > > > 1958 1960 1962 1964 1966 1968 1970 1972 1974 1976 1959 1961 1963 1965 1967 1969 1971 1973 1975 > > > > > > > > >

Cantata academica, Sonata in C, op. 65 Holidays with Pears in Children's Crusade, op. 82 Third Suite for Cello, Completes the full score carmen basiliense , op. 62 Armenia as guests op. 87 of Death in Venice, but First visit to Aldeburgh by of Rostropovich Snape Maltings Concert misses the premiere Cuban revolution. Mstislav Rostropovich and Vishnevskaya. Hall badly damaged by Owen Wingrave , an during the Aldeburgh and . fire on the eve of the opera commissioned for Festival, convalescing Faber Music established. Aldeburgh Festival. television, is broadcast after heart surgery. Construction of on BBC2. Wall. Neil Armstrong sets foot Sydney Opera House on the moon. Britten rehearsing with Mstislav Britten at Snape Maltings opened by Queen Britten in Venice, in a wheelchair Rostropovich at the Festival of conducting a rehearsal for the Elizabeth II. pushed by William Servaes, 1975. British Music in Moscow. premiere of The Building of the Maxwell Davies, Eight Photo: Rita Thomson House.Photo: Hans Wild. Songs for a Mad King

Symphony for Cello and The Building of the House, Shostakovich, Symphony Phaedra, op. 93; String Orchestra, op. 68 ; Cantata op. 79 ; Second Suite for No. 14 Quartet No. 3, op. 94 misericordium , op. 69 Cello, op. 80 Final visit to Venice, Visits USSR for the Snape Maltings Concert where he completes Festival of British Hall opens as a new the String Quartet No. 3. Music. Fiftieth venue for the Aldeburgh birthday celebrations. Festival. Queen Elizabeth End of Franco's rule in II opens the Concert Hall Spain. Surrender of Assassination of John F and visits The Red House. Saigon to North Kennedy. Vietnamese forces. Homosexuality becomes Tippett, Concerto for legal in UK. Orchestra Britten Connections A guide for performers and programmers Britten Connections A guide for performers and programmers 27

11 Symphony for Cello and Orchestra op. 68 24 Praise We Great Men 34 Violin Concerto op. 79 CD sampler tracks 4 Passacaglia: Andante allegro /Alison Hargan/Mary King/ Mark Lubotsky/English Chamber Acknowledgements Paul Kildea /Flanders Symphony /City of Birmingham Orchestra/ Britten Orchestra/Seikyo Kim Symphony Orchestra and Chorus/ Decca 417 3082 ONYX4058 01 Cantata academica, carmen basiliense 35 Ballad of Heroes op. 14 The Britten-Pears Foundation is grateful to Paul Kildea is a conductor who has written EMI Classics CZS5739832 op. 62 12 String Quartet No. 1 in D op. 25 1 Funeral March the following for permission to use the extensively on Benjamin Britten and Part I Bonorum summum omnium 1 Andante sostenuto - Allegro vivo 25 Les Illuminations op. 18 /Robert Tear/City of recordings featured on the CD sampler: twentieth-century music and culture. His London Symphony Orchestra and 3a Phrase Birmingham Symphony Orchestra books include Selling Britten: music and BBC Chorus/George Malcolm EMI Classics 557 9682 /English Chamber and Chorus/Simon Rattle the market place and Britten on Music www..co.uk/radio3 Decca 475 6040 Orchestra/ EMI Classics CZS5739832 (both OUP). Penguin Press will publish his 13 Phaedra op. 93 major new biography of Britten in time for 02 Diversions op. 21 Naxos 8.557206 ‘My time’s too short, your highness…’ 36 Children’s Crusade op. 82 the composer's 2013 centenary. He is a Variation 6: Nocturne /English Chamber 26 Second Suite for Cello op. 80 Oxford Christ Church Cathedral Choir/ former Head of Music at the annual festival Steven Osborne/BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra/Steuart Bedford Mstislav Rostropovich Stephen Darlington founded by Britten in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, Orchestra/Ilan Volkov Naxos 8.557199 Decca 421 8592 Lammas LAMM 146D Decca Classics and former Artistic Director of London's Hyperion CDA67625 www.deccaclassics.com 14 Movements for a Clarinet Concerto 27 Young Apollo op. 16 37 Phantasy in F minor . 03 Three Divertimenti II Michael Collins/Northern Sinfonia/ /Felix Kok/Jeremy Ballard/ Endellion String Quartet/Nicholas Logie EMI Classics 2 Waltz Thomas Zehetmair Peter Cole/Michal Kaznowski/City of EMI Classics 2175262 www.emiclassics.co.uk Belcea Quartet NMC D140 Birmingham Symphony Orchestra/ 38 An American Oveture EMI Classics 557 9682 Simon Rattle Hyperion Records 15 Alla marcia City of Birmingham Symphony EMI Classics CZS5739832 www.hyperion-records.co.uk 04 Serenade op. 31 Endellion String Quartet Orchestra/Simon Rattle 5 Hymn EMI Classics 2175262 28 Suite on English Folk Songs op. 90 EMI Classics CZS5739832 Lammas Records / 4 Hunt the Squirrel 16 First Suite for Cello op. 72 39 Sonata in C op. 65 www.lammas.co.uk Orchestra/Simon Rattle City of Birmingham Symphony Mstislav Rostropovich Mstislav Rostropovich/Britten EMI Classics 558 0492 Orchestra/ Simon Rattle London Philharmonic Orchestra Decca 421 8592 Decca 421 8592 05 Our Hunting Fathers op. 8 EMI Classics CZS5739832 www.lpo.org.uk 17 A Charm of Lullabies op. 41 40 The Prince of the Pagodas op. 57 3 Dance of Death 29 Noye’s Fludde op. 59 5 The Nurse’s Song Act III, Scene 2 Pas de six Naxos Ian Bostridge// /David Pinto/ Catherine Wyn-Jones/Northern / www.naxos.com Darian Angadi/ Stephen Alexander/ Sinfonia/Steuart Bedford EMI Classics 2175262 EMI Classics 56534 Caroline Clack/Marie-Therese Pinto/ Nimbus Records Naxos 8.557205 06 Oliver Cromwell (Nursery Rhyme Eileen O'Donovan/Sheila Rex/English 41 String Quartet No. 2 in C op. 36 Music taken from NI 5704 from Suffolk) 18 Piano Concerto op. 13 Opera Group Orchestra/Merlin 2 Vivace courtesy of Nimbus Records. Ian Bostridge/Britten Sinfonia/ I Channon/ Norman Del Mar Belcea Quartet Daniel Harding /City of Birmingham Decca 475 6040 EMI Classics 557 9682 www.wyastone.co.uk Symphony Orchestra/Paavo Järvi EMI Classics 56534 30 Cantata misericordium op. 69 42 Symphonic Suite ‘Gloriana’ op. 53a EMI Classics 2175262 NMC Recordings 07 Third Suite for Cello op. 87 Peter Pears/Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau/ Courtly Dance No. 6: Lavolta www.nmcrec.co.uk 6 Fuga: Andante espressivo 19 Quatre chansons françaises London Symphony Orchestra and London Symphony Orchestra/ Paul Watkins 4 Chanson d’automne Chorus/Britten Steuart Bedford Onyx Classics Nimbus NI 5704 Ian Bostridge/Britten Sinfonia/ Decca 475 6051 Naxos 8.557196 www.onyxclassics.com Daniel Harding 31 Nocturne op. 60 43 Friday Afternoons op. 7 08 Lachrymae op. 48a EMI Classics 56534 EMI recordings are licensed courtesy of EMI L’istesso But that night when on my bed I lay 1 Begone, dull care Classics, www.emiclassics.com Roger Chase/Nash Ensemble/ 20 Canadian Carnival op. 19 /Northern Sinfonia/ Viola Tunnard/Downside School Choir/ Lionel Friend Wesley Warren/City of Birmingham Steuart Bedford Britten Hyperion CDH55225 Symphony Orchestra/Simon Rattle Naxos 8.557199 Decca 475 6040 EMI Classics CZS5739832 09 Double Concerto 32 Quartettino 44 Spring Symphony op. 44 Design: www.spystudio.co.uk Pieter Schoeman/Alexander Zemstov/ 21 The Golden Vanity op. 78 III Allegro molto vivace Part 4: Finale Print: www.halstan.co.uk London Philharmonic Orchestra/ Oxford Christ Church Cathedral Choir/ Endellion String Quartet /Norma Proctor/ Stephen Darlington EMI Classics 2175262 Peter Pears/Boys from Emanuel School Lammas LAMM 146D Wandsworth/Orchestra and Chorus LPO-0037 33 Temporal Variations of House, Covent 22 The Building of the House op. 79 4 Exercises 10 Sinfonia da Requiem op. 20 Garden/Britten Chorus of East Anglian /English /Northern Sinfonia/ 2 : Allegro con fuoco Decca 475 6040 City of Birmingham Symphony Chamber Orchestra/Britten Steuart Bedford Orchestra/ Simon Rattle BBCB 8007-2 Naxos 8.557205 EMI Classics CZS5739832 23 String Quartet No. 3 op. 94 4 Burlesque: Fast, con fuoco Belcea Quartet EMI Classics 557 9682 Britten Connections A guide for performers and programmers Britten Connections A guide for performers and programmers 29

Index of Britten works Sacred and Profane 8 Bridge, Frank 3, 4, 7 Strauss, Richard 9 Selected further reading Catalogue details on red page numbers Saint Nicolas 10 10 Der Rosenkavalier 9 www.brittenpears.org for full details of Sechs Hölderlin-Fragmente 8, 11 Chopin, Frédéric 9 Metamorphosen 10 all Britten’s published works, biographical Alla marcia 19 Second Suite for Cello 19 Copland, Aaron 2 , 3, 10, 11, 13 14 information and much more. Serenade 8, 9, 17 de Falla, Manuel Orchestral songs 9 An American Overture 4, 10, 13 The Faber Pocket Guide to Britten John Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo 8, 10 Nights in the Gardens of Spain 15 Tone poems 9 Ballad of Heroes 7, 10, 16 Bridcut (Faber and Faber, 2010). Billy Budd 4 4 Debussy, Claude 3, 11, 17 Vier Letzte Lieder 10 Britten David Matthews (Haus Publishing, A Birthday Hansel 8 Sinfonia da Requiem 4, 7, 8, 10, 12 , 13 , 17 Trois nocturnes 10 Stravinsky, Igor 3, 7, 13, 14, 15, 16

paperback 2003). The Building of the House 14 Sinfonietta 4, 7 Dow^land, John 5, 15 Canticum sacrum 7 Cabaret Songs 9 Soirées musicales 8 Dvorák, Antonin 15 7 Benjamin Britten: A Biography Humphrey Canadian Carnival 10, 13 Sonata in C 19 Elgar, Edward 10, 15 The Flood 7 Carpenter (Faber and Faber, new edition Cantata academica 9, 16 Songs from the Chinese 8, 11 Sea Pictures 17 Mass 7 2003). Cantata misericordium 4, 7, 16 Spring Symphony 9, 10, 16 Field, John 10 Oedipus rex 7 Journeying Boy: The Diaries of the Young Canticles I-V 8 String Quartet No. 1 in D 8, 19 Gay, John 5 Petrushka 8 Benjamin Britten 1928-1938 Dr John Evans A special centenary logo has been created Cello Suites 8 String Quartet No. 2 in C 19 Gershwin, George 9 Requiem Canticles 7 (Faber and Faber, paperback 2010). for use in association with any Britten event String Quartet No. 3 4, 19 Porgy and Bess 9 The Rite of Spring 7 Ceremony of Carols 10 Britten on Music Paul Kildea (OUP, between September 2012 and August 2014: String Quartets 8 Grainger, Percy 14 Symphonies d'instruments à vent 7 A Charm of Lullabies 9, 17 paperback 2008). the two full seasons either side of the Children’s Crusade 10, 18 Suite on English Folk Tunes 5, 7, 8, 14 Handel, George Frideric 18 Tchaikovsky, Pyotr Ilyich 3 centenary year 2013. Britten's Children John Bridcut (Faber and Corpus Christi Carol 9 Symphonic Suite ‘Gloriana’ 13 Hindemith, Paul 9 Tippett, Michael 5, 7 Faber, paperback 2007). Curlew River 11 Symphony for Cello and Orchestra 4, 7, 8, 12 , 13, 15 Haydn, A Child of Our Time 10 For more information see

Death in Venice 8, 9, 14 Temporal Variations 14 Missa in tempore belli 10 Vaughan Williams, Ralph 5 February House Sherill Tippins (Pocket www.britten100.org. Diversions 4, 8, 9, 15 Third Suite for Cello 19 Ives, C^ harles 11, 13 Verdi, Giuseppe 6, 7 Books, paperback 2006). Double Concerto 8, 14 , 15 Three Divertimenti 19 Janácek, Leos 9 Walton, William 7, 15 First Suite for Cello 19 Three Two-Part Songs 10 Krenek, Ernst 9 Wagner, Richard 4, 17 Four Sea Interludes 4, 5, 9 The Turn of the Screw 4, 11 Liszt, Franz 10, 14 Weill, Kurt 9 Fourteen Folk Songs 17 Two Portraits 8 Mahler, Gustav 3, 7, 13, 14, 16, 17 Selected DVDs Friday Afternoons 10, 18 Um Mitternacht 9, 11 Kindertotenlieder 7 Benjamin Britten - A Time There Was Tony Gloriana 8 Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge 4, 8 Rückert-Lieder 7 Palmer (1979). Released on DVD by Tony The Golden Vanity 18 Violin Concerto 4, 7, 8, 15 Symphonies 7 Palmer Films, 2008. The Holy Sonnets of John Donne 8 War Requiem 10, 16 Matthews, Colin 8, 10, 14, 15, 16, 17 The Hidden Heart - A Life of Benjamin McPhee, Colin Lachrymae 9, 15 Welcome Ode 10 11 Britten and Peter Pears Jake Martin (2001). Mendelssohn, Felix Les Illuminations 7, 8, 10, 17 Who are these Children? 8, 10 Released on DVD by EMI Classics, 2008. The Little Sweep 10 Winter Words 8 A Midsummer Night’s Dream 10 Matinée musicales 8 Young Apollo 4, 15 Milhaud, Darius 9 Men of Goodwill 13 The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra 4, 16 Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus 3, 7, 10, 14 A Midsummer Night’s Dream 9, 10 Clarinet Concerto 15 Missa brevis 10 Orff, Carl Moderato and Nocturne 9 Carmina Burana 16 Movements for a Clarinet Concerto 9, 15 Index of other composers Penderecki, Krzysztof Night Piece 9 Bach, Johann Sebastian 18 Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima 10 Nocturnal after John Dowland 9 Barber, Samuel 11 Poulenc, Francis 6 , 7, 9 Nocturne 7, 8, 9, 17 Bartók, Béla 5, 15 Prokofiev, Sergei 14, 15 Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal 9 Contrasts 9 ‘War Sonatas’ 10 Noye’s Fludde 7, 10, 18 Beethoven, Ludwig van 3, 7 Purcell, Henry 5, 19 On This Island 9 Berg, Alban 3, 7, 14, 17 Ravel, Maurice 4, 9 Our Hunting Fathers 10, 17 Violin Concerto 4, 15 Piano Concerto for the Left Hand 4, 15 Rossini, Gioachino 8 Chester Music Ltd Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Ltd Faber Music Ltd Owen Wingrave 10 Wozzeck 9 Music Sales Ltd, 14/15 Berners St, Aldwych House, 71–91 Aldwych, Bloomsbury House, 74–77 Great Russell St, Paul Bunyan 4, 9, 10 Berkeley, Lennox 7 Saint-Saëns, Camille 15 London, W1T 3LJ, UK London, WC2B 4HN, UK London, WC1B 3DA, UK Schoenberg Arnold 7, 15, 17 Promotion Tel: +44 (0)20 7612 7400 Promotion Tel: +44 (0)207 054 7200 Promotion Tel: +44 (0)207 908 5311/12 Peter Grimes 4, 5, 9, 10 Berlioz, Hector Promotion Fax: +44 (0)20 7612 7549 Promotion Fax: +44 (0)207 054 7293 Promotion Fax: +44(0)207 908 5339 Phaedra 4, 7, 18 Les nuits d’été 17 Erwartung 18 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Phantasy 19 Bernstein, Leonard 4, 5, 9, 13 First Kammersymphonie 4 Hire Tel: +44 (0)1284 705 705 Hire Library Fax: +44 (0)207 054 7292 Hire Library Fax: +44 (0)1279 828 902 Hire Fax: +44 (0)1284 703 401 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Piano Concerto 4, 7, 8, 9, 14 , 15 Bolcom, William 9 10 Email: [email protected] www.boosey.com www.fabermusic.com Plymouth Town 8 Brahms, Johannes 3, 7 Schubert, Franz 3, 7, 11 www.chesternovello.com The Poet’s Echo 11 Schumann, Robert 10, 15 for North America: for North America: Praise We Great Men 16 Shostakovich, Dmitri 2, 3, 7, 9, 13, 15, 16, 17 for North America: Boosey & Hawkes Inc Schott Music Corp & EAMD LLC Cello Concertos Nos. 1&2 7 G. Schirmer, Inc, AMP Inc, Music Sales Corp, 229 W28th St, 11th Fl, 254 W 31st St, 15th Fl, 4 New York, NY 10001, USA New York, NY 10001, USA ‘Leningrad’ Symphony 7, 10 257 Park Ave S, New York, NY 10010, USA The Prince of the Pagodas 8, 11, 13 Promotion Tel: +1 (212) 254 2100 Promotion Tel: +1 (212) 358 5300 Promotion Tel: +1 (212) 461 6940 Symphony No. 14 7 Promotion Fax: +1 (212) 254 2013 Promotion Fax: +1 (212) 358 5305 Promotion Fax: +1 (212) 810 4565 Psalm 150 10 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Violin Concerto No. 1 10, 15 Email: [email protected] Quartettino 19 Hire Tel: +1 (845) 469 4699 Hire Library: 601 W26th St, Suite 312 Email: [email protected] Quatre chansons françaises 4, 8, 10, 17 Sibelius, Jean Hire Fax: +1 (845) 469 7544 New York, NY 10001, USA www.eamdllc.com Violin Concerto 15 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] The Red Cockatoo & other songs 9 www.schirmer.com www.boosey.com