Britten

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I was first introduce to Britten's music by my father. He told me that We had seen him sitting in his garden, when we were on a farm holiday in Suffolk in 1951, but added that Britten was "a horrible modern composer", though he did think the Young Person's Guide was an exception.
So when I went to boarding school where the head of music was a Britten fan, I was asked to be one of the boys in a performance of St Nicholas in 1961. I was convinced then that my father's assessment of Britten's music was questionable, but when I was given the part of Ham in Noye's Fludde, I knew some missionary work was necessary, and persuaded him to buy the Argo recording. He was a convert from that moment on and became a huge fan of the War Requiem soon afterwards.
I particularly like the choral works, especially the Hymn to St Cecelia, and I don't care what anyone says about the Spring Symphony, 'cos I love it to bits.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

This is a thread about Britten's music. Please can we stick to that. Any off-topic attempts to revive the terminated Britten thread will be removed.

[Lateralthinking1]

This is a thread about Britten's music. Please can we stick to that. Any off-topic attempts to revive the terminated Britten thread will be removed.

Just to clarify, Eine, where on the forum can the topic about Britten's character now be continued? Platform 3?

Or is it the intention by the liberal management and contributors to, quote one, "file it away" although the character of any other composer can be discussed?

I feel that it would be appropriate for us all to be given a decent answer on what the censorship rule is that applies.

[Thropplenoggin]

This is a thread about Britten's music. Please can we stick to that. Any off-topic attempts to revive the terminated Britten thread will be removed.

I think it would be nice - no, more than nice, common courtesy - to inform the person who instigated the thread that a) it is earmarked to be locked/deleted, and b) give the reasons why moderators believe it should be.

[Beef Oven]

I like Friday Afternoons. It's one of my favourite Britten pieces.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I like Friday Afternoons. It's one of my favourite Britten pieces.

Yes. I was teaching Old Abram Brown to a class of 10 year-olds earlier this week. They absolutely loved it.

[Mary Chambers]

Yes. I was teaching Old Abram Brown to a class of 10 year-olds earlier this week. They absolutely loved it.

You probably know about this project then - http://www.fridayafternoonsmusic.co.uk/

It's slightly alarming that they can provide 'backing tracks', but I suppose there are a lot of teachers now who can't manage the piano parts.

[Beef Oven]

Yes. I was teaching Old Abram Brown to a class of 10 year-olds earlier this week. They absolutely loved it.

Amazing how it still continues.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

It's slightly alarming that they can provide 'backing tracks', but I suppose there are a lot of teachers now who can't manage the piano parts.

Quite!
I recently heard of a teacher who was criticised for "not using technology" in a lesson. Why? Because he didn't need to because he could play the piano, which the "approved" teachers could not. The world is going mad.

[Bryn]

Quite!
I recently heard of a teacher who was criticised for "not using technology" in a lesson. Why? Because he didn't need to because he could play the piano, which the "approved" teachers could not. The world is going mad.

How very strange. Seems to me the piano is a very fine piece of music technology indeed!

[Barbirollians]

How very strange. Seems to me the piano is a very fine piece of music technology indeed!

I wonder if he had played a Yamaha organ instead ?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

You mean a recording of someone else playing a piano on the other side of the earth?

[Barbirollians]

Possibly or perhaps he could have programmed the score into a computer and got it to play them - a piano sounds much too much like immediate engagement with the music .

[Richard Tarleton]

The current Britten trailer on R3 features a snatch from the Nocturnal after John Dowland, Op 70. Here's a You Tube clip of Julian Bream, at the end of his career, playing the final 2 movements of this 18 minute piece on the stage of the Maltings.

The guitar incidentally is the legendary "Augustin" Hauser, a guitar Segovia always wanted to play but which its owner Albert Augustin, the guitar string maker, didn't let him. His widow Rose lent it to Bream who played it at the end of his career. It had to go back to her estate when she died.

[Mary Chambers]

So far, I can report that Paul Kildea's observations on Britten's music are preferable to Carpenter's, but his prose style is driving me mad.

Spring Symphony is on Radio 3 tonight!