BaL 4.06.22 - Britten: Four Sea Interludes (from "Peter Grimes")

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

9.30 am
Building a Library

Anna Lapwood compares recordings of Benjamin Britten’s Four Sea Interludes and picks a favourite.

When Peter Grimes premiered in 1945 it immediately put Britten, uniquely among his compatriots, in the first rank of the world’s opera composers. As well as the consummate solo vocal and choral writing, the orchestra, too, plays a vital role in Britten’s dark drama of alienation and hypocrisy in a small Suffolk fishing community. Several purely orchestral episodes sometimes punctuate, sometimes push forward the narrative and four of these were published separately as the Sea Interludes. Much performed and recorded, Britten’s dazzling orchestration vividly conjures up Dawn, Sunday Morning, Moonlight and a Storm.


Available versions:-


London Symphony Orchestra, Steuart Bedford
Concertgebouw Orchestra, Eduard van Beinum
Boston Symphony Orchestra, Leonard Bernstein
New York Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein (SACD)
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Adrian Boult *
English Symphony Orchestra, William Boughton
Royal Opera House Orchestra, Benjamin Britten
BBC Symphony Orchestra, Andrew Davis
New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Myer Fredman
BBC Philharmonic, Edward Gardner
Philharmonia Orchestra, Carlo Maria Giulini
Ulster Orchestra, Vernon Handley
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Richard Hickox
Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Neeme Järvi
Oregon Symphony, Carlos Kalmar (SACD)
Flanders Symphony Orchestra, Jan Latham-Koenig
Minnesota Orchestra, Sir Neville Marriner *
Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI di Milano, Riccardo Muti *
Montreal Metropolitan Orchestra, Yannick Nézet-Séguin *
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Libor Pe�sek *
London Symphony Orchestra, André Previn
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Zhang Yi

* = download only

[Pulcinella]

Not as much recorded as I would have thought.
Certainly much performed/played on R3, though!

Hard to beat Previn, I'd venture to suggest.
Am I right in thinking that Britten's own version is taken from the full opera recording (with some vocal elements)?

[Bryn]

Without the Passacaglia they're somewhat wanting, as far as I'm concerned.

[Petrushka]

Without the Passacaglia they're somewhat wanting, as far as I'm concerned.

Previn and Andrew Davis do include the Passacaglia (op. 33b) as a separate track though I prefer to insert it between 'Moonlight' and 'Storm' when playing those versions as Rostropovich did in a 1998 Prom concert I attended.

Agree with Pulcinella that Previn would be my first choice.

[ardcarp]

Not as much recorded as I would have thought.

A realtively small body of music and a fairly limited discography could mean that we get a meaningful BAL.

[Edgy 2]

This work, especially LSO Previn, is very special to me
Mid 70s, school record library LP c/w Passacaglia and Sinfonia Da Requiem sparked a lifelong passion for British music

[Pulcinella]

Previn and Andrew Davis do include the Passacaglia (op. 33b) as a separate track though I prefer to insert it between 'Moonlight' and 'Storm' when playing those versions as Rostropovich did in a 1998 Prom concert I attended.

Agree with Pulcinella that Previn would be my first choice.

That's how it appears in the Pešek/RLPO recording that is on CD1 of the 37CD Collector's Edition.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Surprised it hasn’t been recorded more often particularly as it’s often both scheduled in concerts and is usually , excerpted , on Radio 3 once a week.
Bernstein’s own conductor’s score is in the New York Phil archive website

https://archives.nyphil.org/index.ph...age/1/mode/1up

Link does not work so search Bernstein sea interludes score instead if you are interested !

[gurnemanz]

That's how it appears in the Pešek/RLPO recording that is on CD1 of the 37CD Collector's Edition.

I have that box and it's my only version on CD. Pešek is surely a major contender. Vivid sound.

We went to a memorable concert 10 years ago in Birmingham with CBSO and Andris Nelsons which started with the Britten Sea Interludes followed by Mahler's Kindertotenlieder sung by Jonas Kaufmann. There's a child death link there since the Passacaglia precedes the boy falling to his death while descending the cliff. The second half of the concert was Strauss orchestral songs and a return to the sea with Debussy's La Mer concluding the evening.

[cloughie]

Interesting that the reviewer is Anna Lapwood - she will have probably thoroughly studied the score before recording her organ transcription of the Interludes at Ely Cathedral. For anyone who hasn’t heard it - it is beautifully played and well worth a listen!

[Pulcinella]

Interesting that the reviewer is Anna Lapwood - she will have probably thoroughly studied the score before recording her organ transcription of the Interludes at Ely Cathedral. For anyone who hasn’t heard it - it is beautifully played and well worth a listen!

Sunday Times article about her here:

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/anna-lapwood-the-tiktok-star-who-is-proud-to-playlikeagirl-330bmq5sp?shareToken=70acd3bc617f4230c906a74570c64e5f

[Darloboy]

This is the first time that the Interludes have been specifically covered by BaL, although Peter Grimes has been featured twice. Tbh, I’d have preferred a programme on the full opera, especially given that: (1) it hasn’t been featured since 2007, and (2) there’s a recent Gramophone Award-winning recording which might have displaced the previous first choices.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

This is the first time that the Interludes have been specifically covered by BaL, although Peter Grimes has been featured twice. Tbh, I’d have preferred a programme on the full opera, especially given that: (1) it hasn’t been featured since 2007, and (2) there’s a recent Gramophone Award-winning recording which might have displaced the previous first choices.

Yes. This is something of a bleeding chunk BaL, rather like reviewing a ballet suite rather than the entire work.

[Petrushka]

Yes. This is something of a bleeding chunk BaL, rather like reviewing a ballet suite rather than the entire work.

Point taken but the Interludes do have a separate life in the concert hall as well as on disc and I'm happy to see them considered on BaL.

[ardcarp]

Point taken but the Interludes do have a separate life in the concert hall as well as on disc and I'm happy to see them considered on BaL.

Me too.