Britten on BBC4

[teamsaint]

CotW next week is Britten. As I have never got or understood the adulation and fawning over him I resolve to listen to ths everyday. I may be convinced, I may not, but I am willing and open minded.
(I have two of this, some horn stuff and some Christmas thing)

Anna, do you know the SQs?
They are definitely a brilliant way in, as is the wonderful violin concerto. Apologies if you know these, I'm a BB novice as you can tell.

[Anna]

Billy Budd is on telly tonight,might have to be excused Sunday night club,my head will be all over the place

I thought about it Rob, but I dunno, not sure, undecided, wavering, do I really want to be totally depressed? Probably not ,,,,,, The one excursion to Peter Grimes was enough to put me off

[Mary Chambers]

I thought about it Rob, but I dunno, not sure, undecided, wavering, do I really want to be totally depressed? Probably not ,,,,,, The one excursion to Peter Grimes was enough to put me off

I saw this in the cinema with a Britten novice (not a reference to the opera!) who was blown away (ha!) and said it was the most powerful opera she'd ever seen. It does take concentration, though. It isn't happy, but has the 'redemptive' qualities that I think were mentioned in the Bridcut film. Still, I'm not trying to convert anyone. There are composers I don't like.

[Richard Tarleton]

some horn stuff and some Christmas thing

I think you like cats Anna? - perhaps this is your Christmas thing! The horn stuff my favourite Britten, along with
this, based on Dowland's "Come heavy sleep". Here's Bream (for whom it was written) teaching it in a masterclass.....

[Paul Campbell]

Apart from the music, its the ambiguity that I love most in the operas. BB always gives one plenty to think about after the music has finished. As many times as I've heard Turn of the Screw, I still dont think that I have exausted all possible meaning from "Peter Quint, you devil"!

It was nice that Michael Crawford referred to Ben as a "kind man". It made me think that if someone said that about me after my passing, that would be enough for me

[ardcarp]

CotW next week is Britten. As I have never got or understood the adulation and fawning over him I resolve to listen to ths everyday. I may be convinced, I may not, but I am willing and open minded.

Anna, do you know the very accessible choral pieces such as Hymn to St Cecilia (words almost erotic at times) which is very relevant to this tide, Hymn to the Virgin and The Cowboy Carol...very relevant to forthcoming tide, and maybe (if you like liturgical stuff) the Te Deum in C and Jubilate in B flat? Rejoice in the Lamb has wacky words too. And surely A Ceremony of Carols must appeal?

Anyway, choral stuff apart, the Variations on a Theme of Henry Purcell (aka YPGO) is magnificent...I mean that fugue with the 'tune' coming in augmentation near the end; it's rightly a classic.

Hope you don't mind my mentioning stuff you probably know already; but all the above is a good way 'into' Britten, and nothing like having to sit through Owen Wingrave!

BTW, one of my daughters saw Grimes on the beach at Aldeburgh and was blown away by it in every sense of the word!

[Nick Armstrong]

Billy Budd is on telly tonight,might have to be excused Sunday night club,my head will be all over the place

I went to this at G in summer 2010 - Billy's monologue before his execution was sublime; but the Claggart was too 'melodrama villain' and JM Ainsley failed to cut it in the theatre, I thought, as the Captain. He might we come over much better on the tv...

[VodkaDilc]

CotW next week is Britten. As I have never got or understood the adulation and fawning over him I resolve to listen to ths everyday. I may be convinced, I may not, but I am willing and open minded.

I was fortunate to have taken part in Noye's Fludde at the age of 12. Although I only just about knew who had written it at the time, the power of the experience turned me on to Britten for life. I hope you find a 'way in' to him - Billy Budd's a good starting point, if only for the sheer spectacle of the big numbers. (After hearing that how can anyone say that Britten couldn't write memorable tunes?)

[Mary Chambers]

Apart from the music, its the ambiguity that I love most in the operas. BB always gives one plenty to think about after the music has finished. As many times as I've heard Turn of the Screw, I still dont think that I have exausted all possible meaning from "Peter Quint, you devil"!

It was nice that Michael Crawford referred to Ben as a "kind man". It made me think that if someone said that about me after my passing, that would be enough for me

Steuart Bedford has just said the same thing on Countryfile (BBC 1) which is from Suffolk and had a little feature on Britten.

I agree completely with your first paragraph.

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

I went to this at G in summer 2010 - Billy's monologue before his execution was sublime; but the Claggart was too 'melodrama villain' and JM Ainsley failed to cut it in the theatre, I thought, as the Captain. He might we come over much better on the tv...

Agreed, Caliban. A pity that this year's revival wasn't filmed, as it was even stronger, but the atmosphere of the production comes across very well on film.

[jean]

I've just watched that Countryfile - I wondered why they were talking about the plainsong te lucis ante terminum as though Britten had written it.

Nice curlews, though.

Now, I am just wondering if I can bear to watch Billy Budd. Will it be exactly the same as was screened in cinemas not long ago?

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

I was very impressed with Olly Knussen's contribution.

I've yet to watch the programme - have set aside this evening for the purpose - but there was a very interesting interview with Olly Knussen about Britten in the Grauniad last week:

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/nov/15/when-oliver-knussen-benjamin-britten

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

I do not know his String Quartets but found the segment concerning the final movement of the 3rd quartet enthralling. So now, I need to get a recording, not sure which one and can anyone recommend a DVD of Death in Venice. I want to hear more.

The string quartets are very well served on disc. I've had the immense fortune to review two recently issued discs in the past month - the Takács Quartet performing the three numbered quartets on a single Hyperion disc (very fine and it made the cover of November's IRR); and the second disc by the Emperor Quartet on BIS, containing Quartets 1 and 3 (I adored their disc of No.2 a few years ago). I cannot understand why this disc has been so delayed in appearing. It was recorded in Suffolk's Potton Hall in 2005 and is superb in every way - it is recorded very close and the Emperors have a 'go fro broke' intensity which not all will take to, but I'd thoroughly recommend them. Other fine recordings include the Belcea Qt on EMI and the Magginis on Naxos.

I wonder if ENO's Deborah Warner production of Death in Venice will find a DVD release. It's eminently preferable to the recently issued one on Dynamic, from La Fenice (appropriately enough) but rather too 'high camp' for me. I reviewed it here:

http://www.opera-britannia.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=988%3Abritten-in-italy&catid=12%3Advd&Itemid=1

[Mary Chambers]

I've just watched that Countryfile - I wondered why they were talking about the plainsong te lucis ante terminum as though Britten had written it.

I doubt if Countryfile is the greatest authority on music! But it does open and close Curlew River, which I suppose is why they were singing it.

[Serial_Apologist]

I was fortunate to have taken part in Noye's Fludde at the age of 12. Although I only just about knew who had written it at the time, the power of the experience turned me on to Britten for life.

Britten was so into writing for children I am left wondering if there is a cut-off point for being successfully introduced to the better-known Britten, ie the stuff composed before the Cello Symphony, because I first came to him as a 13-ywear old chorister singing a school production of St Nicholas, and I have to say it put me off most Britten for life, finding more and more of the kinds of things that didn't appeal in other works - glib (to me) sequences, dissonances that seemed arbitrarily there to make the music sound more "modern" than it was, banalities that seem seriously meant, not early postmodernisms. Unlike Mary, I find the late works the most approachable, because of their being more consistent.