Britten

[clive heath]

I, too, find Britten a very mixed bag. Looking for two of my favourites I came across this lovely version of the Choral Dances from "Gloriana" by a Toronto University choral group, the Hart House Chorus.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSa5jqMJ4OU

It was the second movement "Concord" that I wanted to flag up as a high point in his output for me together with his arrangement of "Down by the Salley Gardens" with that wonderful flattened 7th clashing with the soloists 6th on the syllable "fool" of "foolish". Try Ian Bostridge and Julius Drake.

[jean]

The very early Hymn to the Virgin is a brief but very beautiful work.

It's a lovely thing.

I too have approached Britten primarily through his choral work - I first sang Rejoice in the Lamb, Hymn to St Cecilia and A Boy was Born many years ago.

I loved the Three Canticles, and the way he reworked Abraham and Isaac in the War Requiem, ending with Owen's But the old man would not so, but slew his son/And half the seed of Europe, one by one is the more chilling if you remember the originaL.

I don't like his folk song arrangements at all (there was another thread about this, wasn't there?) except for the Ploughboy, which I do like, but that's not really a folk song, is it? I've never heard it in any other version.

[Nick Armstrong]

Rejoice in the Lamb, Hymn to St Cecilia

Oh yes...! Those pieces (along with Howells's canticles) opened my ears to choral music and to English music on visits to evensong in King's Chapel after lectures. I found them - and still find them - overwhelming.

[Mr Pee]

I haven't really tried much (or any) of his instrumental/orchestral work.

You're missing so much! Try the Sinfonia Da Requiem. That, I think, is probably the piece that first really got me interested in Britten's music.

[Mary Chambers]

I don't like his folk song arrangements at all (there was another thread about this, wasn't there?) except for the Ploughboy, which I do like, but that's not really a folk song, is it? I've never heard it in any other version.

The Ploughboy is an 18thC song by William Shield, from his opera The Farmer - at least the tune seems to be, but we don't know whether it was a popular song that Shield chose to use. It was usual to use the term 'folk song' rather loosely in Britten's youth - or even in mine!
.
I like the folk song arrangements, but the song cycles, operas and choral music are my real loves. I've sung all the well-known choral pieces, I think, except the Spring Symphony, which I'd love to have done.

I find the cello works are growing on me, but I don't know whether I'd have been interested in them if I hadn't known the vocal music first.

[amateur51]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NvhhZG4IBA

I wonder what Tom Sutcliffe feels about Britten 20 years on.

Tom Who?

[ahinton]

Tom Who?

Not Service! (for once)...

[Stephen Whitaker]

Tom Who?

This one http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01pz9xn

& http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/sr/all

[ahinton]

Is there any particular reason why we now have two threads running in this sector of the forum about Britten and his music?

[Nick Armstrong]

Is there any particular reason why we now have two threads running in this sector of the forum about Britten and his music?

This was started, I think, to be about the music as a result of the other one not being (as indeed the thread title of that other one does allow)....

[Beef Oven]

This was started, I think, to be about the music as a result of the other one not being (as indeed the thread title of that other one does allow)....

The other one was about the clap for a while, but I think it's back on track now.

[Nick Armstrong]

The other one was about the clap for a while, but I think it's back on track now.

Nonetheless it seems likely to spin back off the track at any moment. It's good to come here for just the music.

[Stephen Whitaker]

There were some people who felt the original thread had degenerated into a slanging match and so hoped that a second attempt might be more civilised.

On a slightly related topic, why do contributors to a forum for Radio 3 listeners feel the need to adopt ludicrous pseudonyms?
Surely that is what one would encounter among the users of Radio 1 fan-sites.
It seems to me that intelligent people should have no need of such disguises and the use of our real names might discourage any lapses into outrageous behaviour.

[Richard Tarleton]

The other one was about the clap for a while, but I think it's back on track now.

No it isn't

[Nick Armstrong]

There were some people who felt the original thread had degenerated into a slanging match and so hoped that a second attempt might be more civilised.

On a slightly related topic, why do contributors to a forum for Radio 3 listeners feel the need to adopt ludicrous pseudonyms?
Surely that is what one would encounter among the users of Radio 1 fan-sites.
It seems to me that intelligent people should have no need of such disguises and the use of our real names might discourage any lapses into outrageous behaviour.

Come to my isle, and we can discuss it....


It seems to be part of the protocol of the 'message board' culture...