Britten

[Barbirollians]

I cannot say I like all his works . The Spring Symphony has always left me cold for a start and those church parables do not do not much for me either as much as I like the stained glass in Aldeburgh church !

Peter Grimes, the War Requiem , the Violin Concerto and Cello Symphony , Sinfonia da Requiem , the Piano Concerto , Billy Budd , Death in Venice and Turn of the Screw are all very much prized my me and I am just getting into the Cello Suites - what are your favourite pieces and what tricks am I missing ?

[Flosshilde]

I haven't really tried much (or any) of his instrumental/orchestral work. The Serenade is the work I listen to most, & I have seen Billy Budd, Albert Herring, The Turn of the Screw, Midsummer Night's Dream & Phaedra & enjoyed them. I've also seen Rape of Lucretia; I appreciated it, but can't say that I enjoyed it!

[Barbirollians]

I haven't really tried much (or any) of his instrumental/orchestral work. The Serenade is the work I listen to most, & I have seen Billy Budd, Albert Herring, The Turn of the Screw, Midsummer Night's Dream & Phaedra & enjoyed them. I've also seen Rape of Lucretia; I appreciated it, but can't say that I enjoyed it!

I don't know how I missed that out - the Serenade, Les lluminations and Nocturne I am very fond of - especially in the John Mark Ainsley versions and of course the pears/Brain version of the Serenade .

Now Flosshilde , as for the orchestral works - Britten Violin Concerto Ida Haendel /BSO /Berglund ! - the recording and work that opened my ears to Britten !

[Flosshilde]

I'll make a point of listening (when I can) during the year. Although I'll have to skip Friday evening's offering as I'll be at a performance of Midsummer Night's Dream by the Royal Scottish Conservatoire & Scottish Opera.

[Thropplenoggin]

All three string quartets. I recommend the Maggini Quartet on Naxos, which I believe are also the BaL recommendation.

[Mary Chambers]

I know most of Britten's music now, but my primary interest has always been his vocal music. Apart from music my main interest is poetry, so Britten's uncanny ability to express and indeed illuminate it in music is bound to appeal to me. If he had written only orchestral music I would, I'm sure, be less fascinated, although I enjoy much (not all) of what he did write. I'm also very interested in the ideas behind the operas, which always provide food for thought. The ambiguity that seems to offend some others is what attracts me.

Works I'm not keen on make a shorter list than those I love. I'm not fond of Owen Wingrave or the Piano Concerto, and not yet convinced by The Prodigal Son, though I find Britten operas often work in the theatre - or in this case church - when they don't quite come across on recordings, and I've never seen a performance of it. I've seen two DVDs of Wingrave, the original TV one and the Gerald Finlay one. I find the original much better than the later one, but still don't take to the piece. I find it underdramatic.

[Belgrove]

The Turn of the Screw, Billy Budd, Death in Venice, Peter Grimes: this represents a pretty good strike rate in just one of the genres in which Britten worked. The Screw is one of the (three) greatest operas of the last century in my opinion.

Serenade, Nocturne, War Requiem. The Young Persons Guide... is just that - a showcase of masterly orchestration. Cello suites.

Britten covered most of the art musical forms and wrote works of great and lasting stature. His musical voice is distinctive, and that inevitably polarizes opinion. Strangely I found Britten harder work to appreciate than the 3rd Viennese School, but he eventually clicked, and then the rewards flow.

[BBMmk2]

The obvious suspects with me. War Requiem, Peter Grimes, Les Illuminations, Frank Bridge Variations, Sinfonietta, Spring Symphony, the list goes on!!

[rauschwerk]

The Spring Symphony was one of the works I fell in love with in my teens and early twenties, along with Young Person's Guide, the Serenade and Peter Grimes. Singing that finale was one of the most exhilarating experiences of my early musical life.

This year's Aldeburgh Festival is not exactly a Brittenfest, but it will give me the chance to hear Curlew River in its original setting of Orford Church at twilight. I still don't know all of the operas, and hope to put that right this year.

Like any worthwhile composer, Britten was anxious not to repeat himself, particularly so after War Requiem. I wonder if, had he lived another 10 years or so, some of the works of his last decade would now be seen as transitional. I don't by any means warm to some of them in the way I do to his earlier pieces. Sometimes I admire the Cello Symphony rather more than I love it.

I am particularly fond of some of the pre-war works, some of which were not taken seriously in this country ("more manner than matter" is a critical phrase that springs to mind). Yet why should a brilliant and precocious composer always have to write profound music? That would come soon enough with the Violin Concerto. I get great enjoyment from Canadian Carnival and Scottish Ballad. (I suppose the latter might get done in concerts more often if the Labeque sisters took it up).

[Flosshilde]

This year's Aldeburgh Festival is not exactly a Brittenfest, but it will give me the chance to hear Curlew River in its original setting of Orford Church at twilight.

That sounds as if it will be magical.

[Richard Tarleton]

Just to be contrary (#6 ) I think it's his orchestral and instrumental works I listen most to, though the Serenade for THS is one of my very favourite pieces. I adore the violin concerto, though I have the Mark Lubotsky performance - pace Ida supporters, doesn't she play her own cadenza? (takes cover). I love the string quartets - I was at the first, posthumous perf. of no 3 by the Amadeus at the Maltings. I mentioned the Nocturnal after Dowland for guitar, written for Bream, on the Dowland BAL thread - a miniature masterpiece.

I'm only just getting to know the cello works, in the Rostropovich recordings, which I don't think are among your favourites Mary?

I nearly forgot - I heard a tremendous perf. of the Sinfonia da Requiem by BBC NOW last year, a work I hadn't paid much attention to before.

[Nick Armstrong]

I know most of Britten's music now, but my primary interest has always been his vocal music. Apart from music my main interest is poetry, so Britten's uncanny ability to express and indeed illuminate it in music is bound to appeal to me. If he had written only orchestral music I would, I'm sure, be less fascinated, although I enjoy much (not all) of what he did write. I'm also very interested in the ideas behind the operas, which always provide food for thought. The ambiguity that seems to offend some others is what attracts me.

I'm in a similar position to you, Mary: most unusually for me (indeed, in contrast with almost every other composer except perhaps Bach), it's his vocal and choral music that I find absorbing.

I think the Britten non-vocal work I love most is one that hardly gets a look in: Diversions (piano left hand - his 'Wittgenstein' piece - and orchestra). Oh, and Young Persons' Guide, of course.

[Stephen Whitaker]

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

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

[Ferretfancy]

The very early Hymn to the Virgin is a brief but very beautiful work. Then there's the extraordinary Our Hunting Fathers, roughly contemporary with the Hymn, but so different.it's probably Britten's most radical work. Britten's BBC performance of it with Pears is extraordinarily anguished in Messalina and the Dance of Death. I only have it on an old BBC Classics LP.
I've always loved Rejoice in the Lamb since hearing a performance when still at school in the early fifties, and naturally the Serenade and the Nocturne are high on my list.

Rauschwerk, I enjoy The Scottish Ballad, but heaven forbid that the Labeques ( otherwise known as the Sadista Sisters ! ) should tie it onto their puppet strings!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Just to be contrary (#6 )I adore the violin concerto, though I have the Mark Lubotsky performance - pace Ida supporters, doesn't she play her own cadenza? (takes cover).

Yes she does; a most unfortunate decision (IH was about as good a composer as BB was a Violinist) as otherwise it's a performance that sweeps (exactly the right verb here!) the board.