Britten

[Mr Pee]

What? The exchange itself or the Brahms for flute?

If the latter...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Brahms-Flute...8972760&sr=1-1

I meant the Brahms for flute. I just cannot imagine it, although I guess if anybody can make it sound convincing it would be Emmanuel Pahud. I shan't be placing an order for it though.....

[amateur51]

Try the String Quartets, too, Pet - some of Britten's very best Music here.

[Mary Chambers]

Here's an intriguing teaser. In an exchange via a different media this evening with tenor Christopher Gillett (which started out as I lamented the purloining of Brahms' Clarinet Sonatas by the flute) he asked if I knew a version of Britten's Serenade in a version for tenor, viola and strings?! It exists... he provided photographic evidence:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BBUCfFcCAAAoCru.jpg:large

He wonders (and so do I) if it's ever been performed? Or what Britten's thoughts about it were? If anyone knows, Mary will...

I don't know! Intriguing. I wonder who arranged it - for viola or cello, I see. I don't think the offstage ending would work very well.

[Ferretfancy]

I wonder if any boardees attended the same concert I did in 1977 or 78 at the Festival Hall, a sort of Britten memorial or celebration concert

I've been trying without success to remember everything that was performed. Philip Ledger was the conductor, Pears sang the Serenade with I think Michael Thompson on horn, the choir of Kings College sang the Festival Te Deum (and Rejoice in the Lamb ?) and I think it finished with the Welcome Ode.

does this ring any bells ?

Yes, I was there, I believe it was the very young David Pyatt playing the horn in the Serenade. I also remember that a man up in the gallery had some sort of noisy seizure just before the first climax of the Sinfonia da Requiem. Like you I'm a bit hazy about the whole programme, but Pears was rather frail. It was of course not that long a fter Britten had died.

[Flay]

I don't know! Intriguing. I wonder who arranged it - for viola or cello, I see. I don't think the offstage ending would work very well.

I think the idea of a very far off-stage viola may appeal to many....

...but surely the Serenade should and could only be with a horn!

Could a viola ever sound as haunting as the horn in Elegy (The Sick Rose)?

[Barbirollians]

I cannot imagine it with a viola . On the other hand , I could not really get my head round Brahms' clarinet sonatas on the viola until I heard lawrence Power's marvellous recording .

Talking of Britten and violas however I am fond of that rediscovered Double Concerto for violin and viola from 1932 .

[mercia]

Yes, I was there, I believe it was the very young David Pyatt playing the horn in the Serenade. I also remember that a man up in the gallery had some sort of noisy seizure just before the first climax of the Sinfonia da Requiem. Like you I'm a bit hazy about the whole programme, but Pears was rather frail. It was of course not that long a fter Britten had died.

ah, thanks Ff - I wasn't aware of anyone in the audience being ill

not sure about David Pyatt, he was born in 1973 [very very young in 1977]

[Ferretfancy]

Mercia
After I wrote I had second thoughts about David Pyatt, but I know the soloist was very young. I remember a player called Nicholas Bush, could it have been him?

[Nick Armstrong]

Mercia
After I wrote I had second thoughts about David Pyatt, but I know the soloist was very young. I remember a player called Nicholas Bush, could it have been him?

I doubt it. Nick Busch was the long-time principal horn of the New Philharmonia - e.g. he is the solo horn player on Barbirolli's 1969 Mahler 5, already a seasoned and expert player, therefore not 'young' in the late 70s...

[Stephen Whitaker]

Michael Thompson (born 4 January 1954) was appointed Principal Horn with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra aged just 18 years. By the age of 21 he was offered positions as Principal Horn with both the Philharmonia and Royal Philharmonic Orchestras, accepting the Philharmonia position, a post he held for ten years before leaving to fulfil increasing solo and chamber music commitments, so it was probably him at the 1977 concert.

[Ferretfancy]

Michael Thompson (born 4 January 1954) was appointed Principal Horn with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra aged just 18 years. By the age of 21 he was offered positions as Principal Horn with both the Philharmonia and Royal Philharmonic Orchestras, accepting the Philharmonia position, a post he held for ten years before leaving to fulfil increasing solo and chamber music commitments, so it was probably him at the 1977 concert.

Stephen

Now that you remind me of his age, I know that you must be right. I do remember the rather frail Peter Pears and the rapport with a much younger partner on the platform,
Bws
Ferret

[mercia]

could it have been him?

lets not worry about it too much - but thank you I should have kept my programme

....... back to the topic in hand ..................

[Richard Tarleton]

Michael Thompson (born 4 January 1954) was appointed Principal Horn with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra aged just 18 years. By the age of 21 he was offered positions as Principal Horn with both the Philharmonia and Royal Philharmonic Orchestras, accepting the Philharmonia position, a post he held for ten years before leaving to fulfil increasing solo and chamber music commitments, so it was probably him at the 1977 concert.

He has a good Britten pedigree - I saw/heard him at the Maltings in a chamber concert at Easter, 1972 - on the same bill Britten and Pears did the Holy Sonnets of JD. He took part in a horn chamber work which to my shame I can't remember but seemed to be enjoying himself. Didn't realise he was so young then. I heard him do the Serenade with the BBC NOW and Bostridge in St Davids Cathedral in the mid '90s.

I have his LP of the Strauss horn concerti.

[Barbirollians]

David Pyatt is the horn soloist in the John mark Ainsley recording . It is rather shocking to find out he is 40 this year !

[Mary Chambers]

the Holy Sonnets of JD.

Now there's a marvellous song cycle. I've heard Bostridge do it, wonderfully, with Julius Drake. I have an idea that Bostridge once said that he felt he hadn't really understood the Donne poems until he came across the Britten settings - something like that, anyway. 'Since she whom I loved' is a very beautiful song.