BaL 27.06.15 - Britten: Les Illuminations

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

0930
Erica Jeal compares available versions of Britten's Les Illuminations and makes a personal recommendation.

Throughout his career, Britten's instinct was unerring when it came to choosing texts suitable to set to music. The 25-year-old Britten's selection of Rimbaud's poetry in Les Illuminations is a dazzling demonstration both of that and his equally sure touch for idiomatic vocal and instrumental writing. But although it quickly became the province of Peter Pears in particular and tenors in general, Les Illuminations was dedicated to and premiered by Sophie Wyss, marking the final flourish of Britten's love affair with the soprano voice. So who will 'have the key to this savage parade' - soprano or tenor?



Available versions:-

John Mark Ainsley, Britten Sinfonia, Nicholas Cleobury

Peter Pears, CBS Symphony Orchestra, John Barbirolli

Ian Bostridge, Berliner Philharmoniker, Sir Simon Rattle

Phyllis Bryn-Julson, English Chamber Orchestra, Steuart Bedford

Suzanne Danco, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Ernest Ansermet

Karina Gauvin, Les Violons du Roy, Jean-Marie Zeitouni

Anne-Catherine Gillet, Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège, Paul Daniel

Susan Gritton, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Edward Gardner

Jerry Hadley, English String Orchestra, William Boughton

Barbara Hannigan, Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Candida Thompson

Heather Harper, Northern Sinfonia Orchestra, Sir Neville Marriner

Franziska Hirzel, Kiev Chamber Orchestra, Roman Kofman

Christina Högman, New Stockholm Chamber Orchestra, Péter Csaba

Anu Komsi, Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra, Sakari Oramo

Felicity Lott, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Bryden Thomson

Sylvia McNair, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa (download)

Sally Matthews, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Vladimir Jurowski

Patrice Michaels, Chicago Chamber Musicians, Paul Freeman

Sandrine Piau, Northern Sinfonia, Thomas Zehetmair (ed. Colin Matthews)

Peter Pears, English Chamber Orchestra, Benjamin Britten

Peter Pears, New Symphony Orchestra, Eugene Goossens

Anthony Rolfe-Johnson, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Sir Neville Marriner (DVD)

Peter Schreier, Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra, Herbert Kegel

Toby Spence, Scottish Ensemble, Clio Gould

Maggie Teyte, John Ranck

Adrian Thompson, Bournemouth Sinfonietta, David Lloyd-Jones

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Just a note to dissociate myself from the X-factor style of the BBC R3 website's introduction quoted above.

[verismissimo]

I like Jill Gomez with Endymion, sadly nla, I think, but widely available pre-loved at low prices thro Amazon.

Britten at his very best in this piece, IMO. Rimbaud too.

[Nick Armstrong]

Fan of the Felicity Lott / RSNO / Thomson version here

But tempted, verismissimo, by mention of Jill Gomez's version which I've never heard...

... and which is available to hear on YouTube in its entirety (thanks it seems to the conductor):

[EdgeleyRob]

Wot no Pears,ECO,Britten ?

[Richard Tarleton]

So Pears/Britten/ECO currently unavailable? I've had my CD for a while, London (Decca) 436 395-2, coupled with Serenade (Tuckwell) and Nocturne.

I must say I like it sung by a soprano.

What does Mary think?

PS snap, Rob.

[rauschwerk]

Surely Pears/eco/goossens should be Pears/eco/Britten?

[visualnickmos]

I like Jill Gomez with Endymion, sadly nla, I think, but widely available pre-loved at low prices thro Amazon.

Britten at his very best in this piece, IMO. Rimbaud too.

This is indeed, a tremendous CD.

[MickyD]

I guess one could call the version from David Lloyd-Jones 'The Bournemouth Illuminations'.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Surely Pears/eco/goossens should be Pears/eco/Britten?

There is something wrong here, certainly. Goossens conducted a recording of Les Illuminations with Pears in 1953 - but the orchestra was the New Symphony Orchestra of London. (The ECO didn't exist as such in Goossens' lifetime.) This recording is available on Australian Eloquence:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/BRITTEN-Serenade-Strings-Illuminations-Nocturne/dp/B000FIHMH6/

But yes - it is against the laws of physics that the Pears/ECO/Britten recording might be unavailable! Not even in a big box?

[Pulcinella]

The Britten/Pears/ECO version is listen on the Presto site:

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Decca/4363952

[Don Petter]

This would seem to be the Pears/ECO/Britten on Amazon OK?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Britten-Serenade-Les-Illuminations-Nocturne/dp/B00000IO61

(Click on the back cover image to see exact contents.)

[Pulcinella]

At least the reissue says which orchestra is used for which piece; the original release 417153-2 I have doesn't!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

This would seem to be the Pears/ECO/Britten on Amazon OK?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Britten-Serenade-Les-Illuminations-Nocturne/dp/B00000IO61

(Click on the back cover image to see exact contents.)

[Mary Chambers]

So Pears/Britten/ECO currently unavailable? I've had my CD for a while, London (Decca) 436 395-2, coupled with Serenade (Tuckwell) and Nocturne.

I must say I like it sung by a soprano.

What does Mary think?

.

Mary thinks Pears/ECO/Britten If it really isn't available that's scandalous.

I find I can never hear the words if it's sung by a soprano. I'm not sure that I've heard the Gomez version, but in general I've never found her diction good. Words matter in Britten.

He wrote it for soprano because a soprano (Sophie Wyss) was the singer he knew best at the time, an established soloist, which Pears wasn't at this point. She had given the premieres of his On This Island and Our Hunting Fathers. She did the premiere of his first two Rimbaud songs, but all along he wanted Pears to sing it, and later insisted on it. This caused some bitterness. Sophie Wyss's husband thought she had been treated very badly (though she said later she hadn't minded too much herself) and there was a rift. In a letter, Britten said "Peter has shown us how it really goes". There's another letter, to Pears in early 1939, where he says the songs are "actually for Sophie in Birmingham, but eventually for PP everywhere!" - a tenor interpreter (well, one particular tenor) was in his mind from the very beginning. There is no reason to think it was an afterthought, or is vaguely inauthentic.

Edit: I see it is available, but strangely isn't in the BAL list. Perhaps it's regarded as a special case. I haven't heard all of those versions, so will try to listen.