BaL 24.12.11 - Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

9.30 a.m. Building a Library: Chris de Souza with with a personal recommendation from the available recordings of Britten's The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra.

Available Versions:

DVD of original film: The Crown Film Unit’s film of Sir Malcolm Sargent (1895-1967) conducting the London Symphony Orchestra. (1946) Includes narration.

CD and SACD:
English Symphony Orchestra, William Boughton
Yuri Temirkanov
Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, Ondrej Lenard
Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa
BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sir Andrew Davis
London Symphony Orchestra, Steuart Bedford
Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra, Gennadi Rozhdestvensky
Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Neeme Järvi
Halle, Barbirolli
Leopold Stokowski
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Paavo Jarvi
Kansas City Symphony, Michael Stern
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Richard Hickox
Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam, Eduard van Beinum
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Libor Pesek
LSO, Britten
CBSO, Rattle

Christopher Lawrence, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Marc Taddei
Eric Shilling, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Karel Ancerl
Boult, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Adrian Boult
Sir Ralph Richardson (narrator), London Symphony Orchestra, Malcolm Sargent
Dame Edna Everage (narrator), Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, John Lanchbery
Richard Baker (speaker) New Philharmonia Orchestra Leppard
Willie Rushton, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sian Edwards

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

There was also a VHS video film version with Brian Blessed narrating. This version, with the RPO, is unavailable, but was a useful educational tool.

I particularly like Sargent's interpretation. At the end of the fugue, the Purcell theme emerges almost imperceptively, giving it a wow factor that the composer's own version somehow lacks.

[Biffo]

I remember seeing the original film at school and it seemed a period piece even then (1963). I think Britten gives a cracking performance of the fugue but I haven't heard Sargent (not since seeing the film, at least) for comparison.

[VodkaDilc]

This was an indispensable part of my curriculum (I was never troubled by the National version, which would probably have labelled me elitist!) in my teaching days. I think my favourite version had Ralph Richardson narrating.

I've recently rediscovered it (stripped of scholastic overtones) in a thrilling version by the Kansas City Symphony and Michael Stern - it's a great piece.

[LeMartinPecheur]

Always think that YPG is the finest Concerto for Orchestra yet written (when performed without narration of course). Pity about the title though - should have stuck to Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Henry Purcell.

[Don Petter]

Always think that YPG is the finest Concerto for Orchestra yet written (when performed without narration of course). Pity about the title though - should have stuck to Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Henry Purcell.

I agree with you, but I thought that when performed without the narration it is called Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Henry Purcell. Surely the 'Young Person ...' title should only be used with the narration?

[LeMartinPecheur]

DP: I think it's generally called YPG even without the narration. Britten's own recording - no narrator - was so styled on the LP sleeve and I don't see any reference to the other title even in the sleeve note.

[Don Petter]

DP: I think it's generally called YPG even without the narration. Britten's own recording - no narrator - was so styled on the LP sleeve and I don't see any reference to the other title even in the sleeve note.

Perhaps then it's me being too idealistic! I suspect it's the attraction of marketing over content.

[LeMartinPecheur]

Carpenter's biography says that Var & Fugue... is a subtitle, and that the BBC "often infuriated Britten by giving this as the title, which Sargent preferred to the anti-pompous Young Person's Guide".

[Don Petter]

Well done 'Arry!

[verismissimo]

Although I seem to have several recordings, I never feel the need to look beyond the Britten/Decca. I recall hearing it at school with narrator. Who was it? The LSO I guess.

[LeMartinPecheur]

I'm surprised to find that I have just 2 versions, both LPs: the Britten Decca SXL one and my late father's van Beinum Decca ACL from which I got to know the work as a child. Probably liked the Peter and the Wolf coupling more until I properly discovered classical music in my teens.

Could have sworn I had the Rattle one somewhere, and am staggered I haven't picked up more random versions, via couplings at least...

[Nick Armstrong]

van Beinum Decca ACL from which I got to know the work as a child.

Ditto... I remember the album so clearly: under the light blue title banner, a grainy black and white photo on the cover of two little lads wearing ties, listening attentively... I wonder if it ever appeared on CD? I'd be interested to hear it again. I think the Prokofiev coupling was LSO/Malko - like you, LMP, I was more into Peter and the Wolf when I was young, only discovering the Britten in my teens...

Now, like verismissimo, I most often go back to the Britten recording... very exciting, partly because there is one point in the final peroration when it all teeters on the edge of falling apart: real tension, even though I know they're going to get back together...!

[Colonel Danby]

I've got the Richard Baker/Ray Leppard thing on CFP, and Yan Pascal Tortelier on a BBC Music Magazine, but I do prefer the piece without narration: Simon Rattle has it tacked onto the end of his talk on the 'Orchestra' CD Rom, so that will do.

[BBMmk2]

I have the BBC MM version to, plus Rattles and the Sir Andrew Davis with the BBCSO. The latter is the one I prefer!