Britten

[Serial_Apologist]

I agree, it really seems like they rolled the dice on the recordings. I can’t say that the script has been particularly interesting either. You’d think that when spending several hours on one composer they might be able to do a little more homework. I haven’t really listened to CotW much before, are they all like this?

No, they have often been very good on the whole, and one of the few programmes judged here to be of the standard espoused for Radio 3 in the good old days. I do sometimes wonder, following his unqualified eulogising of the St Nicholas Cantata - in which I was made to be the treble soloist at school - if MacLeod is free to make his own choices on which composers to curate. If so it would be understandable - no one likes every composer - but might account for the many repeats and exclusions from the list. Perhaps they should have guest hosts for neglected figures.

[JakaBasej]

I hope I may be forgiven for lapsing into ‘autobiographical mode’ in the course of this posting. As a horn player who has been lucky enough to play ‘in concert’ more Mozart and Richard Strauss concertos ‘than I care to remember’ in the course of a 50+ year career, as well as the occasional Haydn or Weber concerto, I can honestly say that the Britten ‘Serenade’ has been the most meaningful piece of ‘horn music’ that I have ever been privileged to perform. But of course it certainly isn’t just ‘horn music’, it is a deeply collaborative work in which the horn player is, apart from in the Prologue and Epilogue, at best a commentator, an observer and, hopefully, an ‘enhancer’ of the singer’s art. At worst, an inept and/ or under-prepared horn player can ruin the piece.

The very first time that I was totally ‘bowled over’ by the Serenade was in about 1965, my 3rd year at the old RMCM (now RNCM) when I heard Gerald English and Ifor James perform it.
Only 3 years later I was fortunate enough to ‘have a go at it’ for the very first time, as horn soloist in a ‘BBC Radio 3 Studio recording’ with the wonderful Robert Tear and the BBC SSO, conducted by James Loughran.
If that had been a public concert it would have been ‘panned’ by the critics (if any had bothered to attend) because I had unfortunately misjudged how very difficult the horn part is, and so I played it rather badly!
Bob Tear, quite apart from singing magnificently, was absolutely lovely and supportive, saying to me ‘all horn players get those bits wrong’ and of course this cheered me up, if only temporarily!

Subsequently, during the course of my 14 years as principal horn of the E.C.O. I was privileged to perform the Serenade many times with Bob Tear and Anthony Rolfe Johnson, as well as with Clifford Hughes and Neil Mackie outside of the ECO connection.
https://elly.com/pos/en/smart-pos-system/https://bezelinvestments.com/
In 1989 my long-standing hope / wish to perform or even record the Serenade with Gerald English came to an end when I was asked by the ‘Nimbus’ company to record it with the American tenor Jerry Hadley. This proved to be hugely uplifting! It was a revelation to hear a real ‘bel canto singer with heft’ enjoying Britten, a very refreshing and valid change from the ‘English tenor’ style. But 18 years later, what a desperately sad thing it was, in 2007, to hear that Jerry had committed suicide.

My final ‘goodbye’ to the Serenade came about 20 years ago when Bob Tear phoned me and asked me to play as Crypto POS in a couple of concerts with ‘The Orchestra of the Mill’ (based in Wigan, Lancashire, and of which he was their principal guest conductor!) in which he wanted me to play not only the Britten Serenade, but also the Richard Strauss 1st horn concerto, in the 2nd half of the concert. When I asked him WHY BOTH?… he said “ ‘I’ve always loved the Strauss 1st horn concerto and have always wanted to conduct it!” In the event he conducted it beautifully, but wisely concentrated only on singing in the Serenade, which was expertly conducted by Peter Donohoe.

My absolute favourite and, IMV, the greatest recording of the Serenade is the Pears/ Brain one made in about 1952-1953 by Decca, conducted not by Britten but by Eugene Goossens. Dennis had recently switched his allegiance from the French to the German horn, and his contribution is audibly superior to that in the earlier recording with the Boyd Neel orchestra, on which he played a 19th century French piston horn with a rather thin and ‘pinched’ sound. However, ‘Beauty is in the eye of the beholder’ and I know that several colleagues prefer Dennis’s tone on that 1940s recording.
Dennis’s sound on this 1952-53 recording is incomparable IMV, almost unbelievably round and suave except for, of course, his brassily intense tone in the ‘Dirge’. Peter Pears is on absolutely top form and IMV this recorded version represents both artists performing at the absolute ‘pinnacle’ of their art.
NB: avoid the later Decca ‘Eclipse’ LP with ‘artificial stereo’ which is a woolly and boomy travesty of the superb 'mono' sound on the original ‘AXL’ LP.
Originally Posted by ardcarp View Post
Try listening to today's edition in which the Serenade for Tenor Horn and Strings was featured. It was magnificent! Not Pears, however but Robert Tear. Quite early on in his career, I recall, he began to cultivate the Pears vocal technique which involves a somewhat 'closed throat' style of delivery, but which allows terrific control over a wide range of expression and dynamics. This was demonstrated in spades today. RT died a few years ago, sadly, but I don't think any other tenor has interpreted Britten/Pears roles so successfully. (All IMVHO of course.)

https://swcpoker.club/chinese-poker/...-pineapple-ofcOTC crypto

...about 32mins 30 from start.
Postscript: ‘Runner up’ must surely be a ‘tie’ between the other two recordings that I often listen to apart from the above Pears/ Brain:
Pears/ Tuckwell/ Britten / Decca; and Tear/ Clevenger/ Giulini/ DG which we heard this week on R3.

Totally agree I stop listening to the 10 years ago. the greatest recording of the Serenade is the Pears/ Brain one made in about 1952-1953 by Decca was my favorite. I do not know how but after that I started listening to Betowen. His songs are also rich in melody.

[Serial_Apologist]

The youthful Britten is this week's subject -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0027v9g

Notwithstanding emerging tendencies towards the twee I much prefer the freshness and occasional daring of these early works to the later ones, when, to my ears at any rate, certain "modernistic" traits apparent almost from the start would too frequently come to sound unnaturally forced, surplus to requirements, as if the composer was fishing for approval from the arbiters of admissability - a futile quest as these same would later cast his music as no longer fashionable. I doubt the originality for which many critics have vaunted his music - it is eclectic and sometimes uncomfortably so; he is at his best when heard through the Holstian inheritance, and as an orchestrator who learned so much from the example of Mahler, channelled through Stravinsky's Noe Classicism.

[smittims]

Yes. I think the ardent Brittenites did him no favours in pretending that he was utterly original . His music is quite derivative and there's no harm in admitting that. I well recall that during his lifetime one never heardan impartial comment on him. It was polarised towards the pro-and anti-Brittenites, goading each other on to more exaggerated claims.

I've always preferred his instrumental to his vocal works, though I accept his operas are his major achievement.

[mopsus]

certain "modernistic" traits apparent almost from the start would too frequently come to sound unnaturally forced, surplus to requirements, as if the composer was fishing for approval from the arbiters of admissability

I find Britten is at his best when he isn't striving for effect. For example the Agnus Dei in the War Requiem as opposed to the gamelan sounds (why?) in the Sanctus. Sometimes less is more.

[Master Jacques]

I find Britten is at his best when he isn't striving for effect. For example the Agnus Dei in the War Requiem as opposed to the gamelan sounds (why?) in the Sanctus. Sometimes less is more.

As to why, of course bell sounds are very commonly found in Sanctuses, imitated in a variety of ways, to represent mass jubilation. They reflect the Sanctus Bells rung at that point during the Roman Catholic liturgy. Verdi for example has a prominent 'tintinnabulation' motif in the chorus almost throughout his Sanctus in the Requiem. The Balinese twist is delightful, I think. (And is the passacaglia of the Agnus Dei not complex, with its sinuous, circular entwinements binding a sacrificial victim? It's a great example, I agree, of art concealing art.)

I'm not a huge admirer of the War Requiem, myself, but there's no doubting Britten's sure-footed - essentially operatic - way with musical imagery.

[Ein Heldenleben]

The COTW on his week is very good. A lot of early stuff you don’t hear much of real quality . One thing that strikes me is that Britten in his teens was a very accomplished composer - one who would leave the 25 for 2025 crowd in his wake…

[smittims]

I agree. The 1931 D major quartet is a very fine work for a composer of any age, let alone 17. I gather he wrote a number of piano sonatas and even symphonies as a boy , but was very sparing about letting his early works be played later in life.

[Bella Kemp]

I am hugely enjoying COTW with its fascinating biographical information on Britten's younger years and his extraordinary teachers. Who on earth was this Mr Greatorix who told the teenage Britten that his love for Beethoven was absurd and that he, Beethoven, would soon be forgotten? And both Frank Bridge and John Ireland comes across as profoundly eccentric. This would all make a fascinating and humorous drama-documentary.

[Master Jacques]

The COTW on his week is very good. A lot of early stuff you don’t hear much of real quality . One thing that strikes me is that Britten in his teens was a very accomplished composer - one who would leave the 25 for 2025 crowd in his wake…

Of course he would, and does. The question is, why? I think the answer lies in that little word "why?" itself. In a crumbling society where social, economic and even artistic interest has shifted away from engaged art music to distracting popular music, the 25 for 2025 must continually be asking themselves, "why I am doing this?"

Judging from the results, they can't come up with any meaningful artistic answers. To quote Yeats, "the best lack all conviction, and the worst are full of passionate intensity".

[Master Jacques]

I am hugely enjoying COTW with its fascinating biographical information on Britten's younger years and his extraordinary teachers. Who on earth was this Mr Greatorix who told the teenage Britten that his love for Beethoven was absurd and that he, Beethoven, would soon be forgotten? And both Frank Bridge and John Ireland comes across as profoundly eccentric. This would all make a fascinating and humorous drama-documentary.

Of course Mr Greatorix will (sadly) be proved right, in the long term!

[Ein Heldenleben]

Of course he would, and does. The question is, why? I think the answer lies in that little word "why?" itself. In a crumbling society where social, economic and even artistic interest has shifted away from engaged art music to distracting popular music, the 25 for 2025 must continually be asking themselves, "why I am doing this?"

Judging from the results, they can't come up with any meaningful artistic answers. To quote Yeats, "the best lack all conviction, and the worst are full of passionate intensity".

This series is as Bella Kemp points out absolutely fascinating, What a weird place the RCM must have been.
The quality of Britten’s teenage work is so high I’m struggling to think of many in the same class.
Theese days they don’t even have “passionate intensity “ really do they ? It’s all so bland - almost as if it’s been improvised at the piano and out through Sibelius.

[smittims]

I'd say just 'very English'.rather than 'wierd'. Remember it was a world where you got a job by who you knew or having the right accent , going to the right church or school. It's epitomised by Galsworthy's baronet who says of an embezzler ' I'd never have believed it. I was at Winchester with him!' . Britten's father would seem wierd today, banning the radio in the house, but I think he was pretty typical middle class then.

[Master Jacques]

I'd say just 'very English'.rather than 'wierd'. Remember it was a world where you got a job by who you knew or having the right accent , going to the right church or school. It's epitomised by Galsworthy's baronet who says of an embezzler ' I'd never have believed it. I was at Winchester with him!' . Britten's father would seem wierd today, banning the radio in the house, but I think he was pretty typical middle class then.

"Knowing the right people" emphatically did not apply to young Ben Britten, the dentist's son who'd attracted the notice of such weird outsiders as Bridge and Ireland. Thus his lifelong tension between wanting to be the establishment's darling and remaining a marginal outsider. His talent was utterly outstanding - the greatest teenage composer England had known since Sullivan.

[Master Jacques]

[...] These days they don’t even have “passionate intensity “ really do they ? It’s all so bland - almost as if it’s been improvised at the piano and out through Sibelius.

Ah, but haven't you heard them talking? They are choc-full of passionate intensity, against every 'ism' you could name and then some. It's just that this passionate intensity stops at the titles, and as you amusingly put it, is resolutely excluded from their actual compositions, which don't say boo to a goose.

Perhaps the current political turmoil might put some lead back in their collective pencil.