Britten centenary website

[MrGongGong]

This looks like it's worth reading

http://www.boydellandbrewer.com/store/viewItem.asp?idProduct=14746

Some great contributors IMV

[Mary Chambers]

Btw, 39 years ago today, Ben passed away. At the time, I saw it on the evening news. Don't know if it was on the actual day.

Do others have a memory of that day?

I remember seeing it on the news as well, and being not exactly shocked - it was known that he was very ill - but aware that it was important to me. Even then I had been interested in him for years. I remember telling my then five-year-old son about him and his music for children.

It might well have been on the news on the day of his death, because he died at about four in the morning. I think it also said something like 'His friend, Peter Pears, was with him when he died".

[Mary Chambers]

This looks like it's worth reading

http://www.boydellandbrewer.com/store/viewItem.asp?idProduct=14746

Some great contributors IMV

I can't think how writers keep finding new angles! Though the Aspen speech is well known, and I'm wondering if I've read some of the other discussions as well.

[Conchis]

Britten's attitude to Wagner has always puzzled me. He allegedly told John Cumshaw 'I don't envy you' when J.C. discussed his plans for recording the Ring. But I've read elsewhere that Wagner was one of BB's favourite composers. I find this hard to believe given his reported antipathy to so much German Romantic music.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Btw, 39 years ago today, Ben passed away. At the time, I saw it on the evening news. Don't know if it was on the actual day.
Do others have a memory of that day?

Yes - I was involved in the school performance of St Nicolas, and the news was a shock. (The performance, in the following week, was greeted in the local paper with the headline "School's Concert a Fitting Tribute to Britten", which was nice.)

[LeMartinPecheur]

Britten's attitude to Wagner has always puzzled me. He allegedly told John Cumshaw 'I don't envy you' when J.C. discussed his plans for recording the Ring. But I've read elsewhere that Wagner was one of BB's favourite composers. I find this hard to believe given his reported antipathy to so much German Romantic music.

Particularly Brahms? He certainly said some very rude things about him and his oeuvre in later life, yet as a teenager he was completely besotted with most of his output, as letters and diaries show IIRC. Strange!

[Roehre]

Particularly Brahms? He certainly said some very rude things about him and his oeuvre in later life, yet as a teenager he was completely besotted with most of his output, as letters and diaries show IIRC. Strange!

alphabetically Brahms comes first

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

alphabetically Brahms comes first

So does "Bridge" - but that didn't influence him!

(The Britten Diaires also suggest a reason for Britten's antipathy for Adrian Boult - who was given the prime broadcasts as Chief Conductor of the BBCSO, whilst Frank Bridge was given the "Second Eleven" and all the stuff Boult didn't want!)