Britten Spring Symphony Recordings

[Guest]

After the week of Britten on Radio 3 I want it add to my Britten recording library. Can any of the forum members recommend a recording of the Spring Symphony? There seem to be very few recordings on Amazon so it is difficult.

[EdgeleyRob]

Britten's own recording is a must I reckon but a bit pricey on Amazon.
I also have the Previn,both are excellent in my non scholarly opinion.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=brittten%20spring%20symphony

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Surely it's easier when there are only a few.

van Beinum
Benjamin Britten
John Eliot Gardiner
Richard Hickox
Andre Previn

If you like Peter Pears' voice, you can't go wrong with Britten's own recording; otherwise Hickox is quite a safe bet, in my opinion.
I'd rule out Previn, simply because EMI always recorded Sheila Armstrong as though she were Katherine Jenkins, whereas she did have a very strong voice in live performances.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Britten's own recording is a must I reckon but a bit pricey on Amazon.
I also have the Previn,both are excellent in my non scholarly opinion.

My own two favourites: Janet Baker's Out On the Lawn for Previn! The finest since Ferrier's with van Beinum, which itself is a superb performance all round - the World Premiere, IIRC - sadly marred for general recommendation by the almost painful recorded sound (taken from a radio broadcast). Hickox is a very good Britten conductor, but Previn pips him in this work, IMO. Haven't heard the Gardiner since it came out - I "remember" that I was impressed but not as bowled over by it as some critics were at the time.

[Black Swan]

Thanks to all. I will think on it. I agree with the comments the Britten is pricey on Amazon. So will ponder Britten vs. Previn.

[makropulos]

Thanks to all. I will think on it. I agree with the comments the Britten is pricey on Amazon. So will ponder Britten vs. Previn.

The Britten performance has been reissued by Alto: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Benjamin-Bri...mphony+britten

I haven't heard the transfer, but it might be okay, and that Alto reissue option is certainly cheaper. Previn is very fine - though I wouldn't want to be without Britten, or Jennifer Vyvyan, Norma Procter and Pears.

[Black Swan]

Makropulos,

Thanks, I have seen this as well.

[HighlandDougie]

My own two favourites: Janet Baker's Out On the Lawn for Previn! The finest since Ferrier's with van Beinum,

BB and Previn for me - I don't think that Gardiner hasn't worn very well - and the Rozhdestvensky I find to be little more than a curiosity (but good on him for performing it). But, even if the rest of the Spring Symphony might be dismissed as galumphing steerhorns and tweeness etc etc gone mad (although not by me), this setting of Auden's words has haunted me since first hearing it forty years ago. Britten at his very considerable best - and, as FHG with his unerring taste reminds us, we have two of the finest British singers ever, recorded for posterity. The recording quality of the van Beinum is execrable but, once Kathleen Ferrier starts singing, you don't notice it - the combination of voice and words is, simply, unforgettable.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

The Britten performance has been reissued by Alto: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Benjamin-Bri...mphony+britten

I haven't heard the transfer, but it might be okay, and that Alto reissue option is certainly cheaper. Previn is very fine - though I wouldn't want to be without Britten, or Jennifer Vyvyan, Norma Procter and Pears.

I often wonder about these recordings copied from old pressings. Have they really managed to find 50+ year-old pressings in good condition, or have they cheated by using "other" methods?

[rauschwerk]

BB and Previn for me...

Do listen to the boys' bits in the Previn before buying if you can - to my mind their contribution is the blot on an otherwise excellent version.

[amateur51]

For me, Spring Symphony is one of those pieces that is best heard 'live' in concert. In that way it always surprises me with its invention and daring, nothing like it in the canon. I'm content with Britten's recording and the Previn

[Ferretfancy]

I'm also content with Britten and Previn. I've always had a problem with this piece, it's hard to say why. I suppose it feels like a rather chilly spring to me, and there's a precious quality that sometimes creeps in to Britten's music which I'm not very comfortable with.

[Mary Chambers]

I have the Britten, and I think I have the Hickox somewhere, but I don't like the boys' choir in that.

I also have the Rozhdestvensky, bit that's for curiosity value - all that wonderful English poetry in Russian!

It's most unusual for me to have three recordings of anything. Not sure how it happened in this case.

[Parry1912]

Do listen to the boys' bits in the Previn before buying if you can - to my mind their contribution is the blot on an otherwise excellent version.

Do you mind! That's my old school choir!

[Mahler's3rd]

Hi Black Swan, you could try this http://www.amazon.co.uk/Britten-Walt...ds=britten+emi
Its a 5 x disc box set at £8.75 free Postage which includes the Previn/Spring Symphony and the violin Concerto with Ida Haendel