Britten-fest...the aftermath

[ardcarp]

Has anyone's view of Britten changed as a result of the [IMV rather good] coverage he got last week and especially at the weekend?

On the forum there are;

-some stalwart devotees
-some who think he's 'good in parts'
-others who confess they just don't 'get' Britten

Has anyone switched camps? Or put themselves in an in-between category?

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

no i have found my antipathy intensified

[gradus]

Hair-splittingly, I'd put myself in a slow-burn school of Britten appreciation. The vln conc (from the Proms) was unknown to me but I'm keen to hear it again, the string quartets still elude me as does Death in Venice but given time.....

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Britten is work making the effort to get to know better. This is the first Radio 3 fest since the Stravinsky/Tchaikovsky one several years ago, that has seemed worthwhile.

[Serial_Apologist]

I still think the Frank Bridge variations was the best thing Britten ever composed.

[Bryn]

I still think the Frank Bridge variations was the best thing Britten ever composed.

Hmm. I think you might well be onto something there.

My interest in the Church Parables has been renewed. I do not currently have the CD of the Britten directed recording of The Prodigal Son, so I went aGoogling. Seems that the slave-driving tax dodgers have it on its own for £29.25, or with the other Church Parable plus 9 further CDs of "Stage and Screen" works for £30.94 including p&p (both from UK marketplace suppliers). Decisions, decisions.

[Simon B]

No, it (and attending a few recent live performances) seems only to have reinforced my settled view.

For the most part, appreciation up to a point is the best I can manage. So much Britten continues to sound just that little bit too "clever-clever" and "brown" to my (tin) ears - tired old cliches though those may be.

Partial exceptions to this are the rather obvious choices - the Sinfonia da Requiem, the YPG and Serenade, and I've rather liked the Piano Concerto since playing in performances of it years ago at college. In the right circumstances (such as the recent BBC/Bychkov I attended at the RAH) the War Requiem can be quite powerful.

However, Peter Grimes continues to strike me as one of the 3 or 4 greatest (which I acknowledge is lazy code for "things I really like") achievements of a British composer, the operatic "equivalent" of Elgar's 1st Symphony. I've listened in vain in the hope of finding anything else of Britten's that comes close. It's one of those pieces that I actively try to avoid encountering for the most part for fear it will lose its impact. The recent LPO/Jurowski semi-staging (easily as effective as most full theatrical productions IMO) once again knocked me sideways - greatly helped it must be said by Stuart Skelton's portrayal of Grimes.

I can't think of any composer who's quite such a personal one-hit-wonder, and nothing I've heard recently has changed this. Of course, this is all personal subjective opinion and of zero significance in terms of any objective assessment, so just saying...

[Serial_Apologist]

I think possibly I came out of what I heard of this series feeling that I knew Britten rather better than previously, and liking him rather more, but still in two minds about his music being hit-and-miss: moments of brilliance unsustained. I am lucky enough to have a copy of Murray Shafer's 1963 book, "British Composers in Interview" (Faber & Faber, London), and always respected the subtle but good-humoured evasion in his answer to the question below put to him by Murray (P.117):

"You are a pacifist. In an absorbing article on your music Hans Keller has written: 'What distinguishes Britten's musical personality is the violent repressive counter-force against his sadism; by dint of character, musical history and environment, he has become a musical pacifist too' How does Keller's observation strrike you?

"Britten: It is difficult, if not impossible, to comment objectively on what is written about oneself. But I admire Keller's intelligence and courage enormously, and certainly about others he is very perceptive!"

[Mary Chambers]

Hans Keller has written: 'What distinguishes Britten's musical personality is the violent repressive counter-force against his sadism; by dint of character, musical history and environment, he has become a musical pacifist too' How does Keller's observation strrike you?

"Britten: It is difficult, if not impossible, to comment objectively on what is written about oneself. But I admire Keller's intelligence and courage enormously, and certainly about others he is very perceptive"

His comment to Imogen Holst about that statement by Hans Keller was "He must have noticed that my favourite instrument is the whip."

(Musical instrument, I hasten to add.)

I have several favourite Britten works, but the Frank Bridge Variations are not among them.

[Suffolkcoastal]

I'm currently going through his output chronologically with the aid of the Britten: The Complete Works set and some off air recordings of some of his early works not in the set. I don't think my opinion will change much. About 2/3rds of his output is superb, but there there are works where a certain dry coolness pervades the music and the standard of inspiration and quality drops.

[kuligin]

First as with all the other "immersions" starting with wall to wall Bach, it was " too much of a good thing".

When I first was introduced to music , mainly by a friend and then Radio 3, Britten was still alive, and each new work was hailed as a masterpiece, even in the case of Owen Wingrave before it was broadcast , and received the type of hype that now is lavished on everything that the BBC do.

I reacted against Britten, particularly when I then discovered Wozzeck and Moses und Aron, and Bartok etc which all seemed to me to be far more modern and deeper although written 50 years before the new works of ourthen leading composer.

I still would travel down to London for those two operas, indeed just have to here Wozzeck (my 7th since 1972) in a glorious performance at Covent Garden and while I have heard every Britten opera other than Billy Budd once , I can't think of a Britten work that make me make that sacrifice in time and money to hear them again.

As time passed there are works I have been drawn to,the works mentioned above the Serenade, the middle movements of the Spring Symphony, Winter Words but most of the output leaves me cold, and some like St Nicholas I dislike intensely

Many years ago I heard a critic say that Britten's operas hold the stage because they have excellent librettos deal with issues that are contemporary and contain music that does not challenge, so that in effect they are the equivalent of what the works of Meyerbeer were to the 19th century. A bit harsh but when I heard Elegy for Young Lovers I came away knowing there was so much more in the score that repeated listenings would reveal, and after my second Death in Venice I came away pleased I had heard it but not sure of its value.

Of course I recognize that the problem is mine, if you dont " get " a composer who is clearly accepted as a key composer by so many great artists one has to keep trying, so next month I will hear the 5 Canticles here in Manchester, but truth be told I am really going for the 2 Tippett Song Cycles

[Paul Campbell]

I enjoyed the weekend very much, although for me the great thing was the opportunity to reassess Britten as performer.

[hmvman]

I've still quite a few programmes from the weekend to catch-up on via the iPlayer but I really enjoyed what I've heard so far. The weekend 'fest' hasn't changed my view of Britten. I am already a devotee but there's a lot of his music I haven't yet heard. The more I listen to, though, the more I want to hear.

I recently bought The Complete Works CD set so I'm looking forward to going through that.

Britten discoveries for me this year (not especially during this last weekend) have been Canticle II: Abraham & Isaac and the Nocturnal after John Dowland. I played the Nocturnal to members of my recorded music society last week and one member said to me afterwards that he wasn't a Britten fan but that he'd been genuinely moved by that piece.

The Frank Bridge Variations was the work that 'unlocked' Britten for me so it has a special place in my affections and I still love it.

[Mary Chambers]

The weekend didn't alter my view at all - that he is both a wonderful composer and a fascinating person - but I enjoyed the forward-looking and positive nature of it. Bridcut's film Britten's Endgame is a work of art, but it is retrospective, and it was good to have a very different point of view.

I was amused by a Radio Suffolk broadcast which looked at the considerable increase in tourism Britten had brought to the Aldeburgh/Snape area. It interviewed local shopkeepers, fishermen and others unconnected with music who had nevertheless benefited from the 'Britten effect'. At the end of the interviews, when they were asked if they liked his music, almost all of them said 'No"!

[ardcarp]

Britten continues to sound just that little bit too "clever-clever" and "brown"

Brown? Synaesthesia ain't what it used to be.