Prom 70 - 3.09.13: Britten & Lloyd

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

10.00pm – c. 11.30pm
Royal Albert Hall

Britten
A Boy was Born (30 mins)
Lloyd
Requiem (52 mins)
London Premiere

Iestyn Davies counter-tenor
Greg Morris organ
Temple Church Choir
BBC Singers
David Hill conductor

Benjamin Britten's masterly Christmas work 'A Boy was Born' is one of his earliest compositions - completed when he only 19 - but is nonetheless a classic of the modern choral repertoire. Cast in, for choral music, the highly unusual form of a theme and variations, it's laid out for choirs of adult and treble voices. Brilliantly scored for its vocal forces, it counts as one of the most original works in the entire choral canon. In tonight's performance, the Temple Church choristers are joined by the BBC Singers - the group which gave the premiere of the work in 1934. This centenary Proms tribute to Benjamin Britten is matched by one to another composer born 100 years ago this year: George Lloyd, whose Requiem was his final composition, composed in memory of Diana, Princess of Wales, and tonight receiving its London premiere.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Is there no end to these centenary/bicentenary composers? I was surprised to discover that this is the London premiere of a work dedicated to the memory of Princess Diana.

[EdgeleyRob]

I am really looking forward to this.
George Lloyd's requiem is very beautiful IMO,brings a lump to my throat anyway.
It's on you tube too if you fancy a listen.

[EdgeleyRob]

Now that was stunning.
End of.
Night all.

[Mary Chambers]

A good performance of A Boy Was Born, with wonderful solo treble. It must be a very difficult work to sing - I wonder if anyone here has ever done it? I haven't. I don't think it's Britten's best word-setting, though the Corpus Christi Carol and In the Bleak Midwinter are very beautiful. In much of the rest he seems to be treating the voices like an orchestra, as David Hill pointed out. I feel he's getting carried away by his own virtuosity.

Incidentally, that nice story about Peter Pears being one of the tenors in the first performance seems to be apocryphal. He was indeed a member of the BBC Singers (the 'Wireless Singers'), but he joined after the date of the premiere. Pity!

I missed most of the Lloyd Requiem, but will listen to it eventually.

[LeMartinPecheur]

A good performance of A Boy Was Born, with wonderful solo treble. It must be a very difficult work to sing - I wonder if anyone here has ever done it? I haven't.

I turned up to a good few rehearsals of it with a smallish-town choral society probably in the late 70s. It was way beyond our capabilities, certainly mine and I think by the time I left the conductor had bowed to the inevitable and had already conceded the need for piano support during the performance in order to offer some hope of averting massive downward creep in pitch/key.

Can't recall now if it was illness or embarrassment at the likely end-product that made me give up. I didn't bother to attend the performance either. It was clearly a fine work that deserved much better. Hearing the prom performance brought back strong memories, mainly pleasurable for the quality of the work rather than pain at the memories of our incompetent struggles, particularly so in the passages we could just about get right!

[EdgeleyRob]

A good performance of A Boy Was Born, with wonderful solo treble. It must be a very difficult work to sing - I wonder if anyone here has ever done it? I haven't. I don't think it's Britten's best word-setting, though the Corpus Christi Carol and In the Bleak Midwinter are very beautiful. In much of the rest he seems to be treating the voices like an orchestra, as David Hill pointed out. I feel he's getting carried away by his own virtuosity.

Incidentally, that nice story about Peter Pears being one of the tenors in the first performance seems to apocryphal. He was indeed a member of the BBC Singers (the 'Wireless Singers'), but he joined after the date of the premiere. Pity!

I missed most of the Lloyd Requiem, but will listen to it eventually.

Thank you Mary for that.
I'm no singer so don't know about the technicalities and difficulties of performing A Boy Was Born.
All I know is that it never fails in the goosebumps department here.

[teamsaint]

Now that was stunning.
End of.
Night all.

I'll try to catch up, though no idea when.

So glad you enjoyed it, ER. BMFs need a fair crack of the whip !!

[Exonian]

I thought the George Lloyd piece was very, very good indeed.

[EdgeleyRob]

I thought the George Lloyd piece was very, very good indeed.

RESULT ,I am not the only one,thanks Ex.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Requiem-Exon-Singers/dp/B00006J47H/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1378329489&sr=8-1&keywords=george+lloyd+requiem

[Mary Chambers]

I turned up to a good few rehearsals of it with a smallish-town choral society probably in the late 70s. It was way beyond our capabilities, certainly mine and I think by the time I left the conductor had bowed to the inevitable and had already conceded the need for piano support during the performance in order to offer some hope of averting massive downward creep in pitch/key

I think it would be very difficult for many (most?) choral societies to keep a half-hour unaccompanied choral piece in tune, at least one as tricky as that.

[Simon Biazeck]

I think it would be very difficult for many (most?) choral societies to keep a half-hour unaccompanied choral piece in tune, at least one as tricky as that.

Yes, hence Britten's specially written 'ad lib.' organ part. There's no shame in using it! I did it in KKC some years ago with Cleobury and the BBC Singers. The KKC boys did A Ceremony of Carols in the first half. It was all rather magical!

[ardcarp]

A Boy was Born - Tuesday's late night Prom

It was appropriate that the BBCS should sing this wonderful set of choral variations by Britten as it was originaqlly written for their predecessors,The Wireless Singers. The choristers of The Temple Church sang their part with a gusto that BB would probably have liked.

It is a tricky piece to perform, and of course the BBCS had the measure of the dots. I felt they did the more gentle bits quite sensitively; but their ff just goes off the end of the decibel (not to mention the wobble) scale.

Two comments:
1.The announcer made much of 'late medieval' pronunciation. I didn't notice it especially. Wasn't 'Jesu' supposed to have been 'Gee-su' ?

2. David Hill mentioned that 19-year-old Britten may have been influenced by hearing Walton's Belshazzar's Feast. I personally do not hear any of Walton's rhythmic or harmonic fingerprints in A Boy was Born.

[Mary Chambers]

It is a tricky piece to perform, and of course the BBCS had the measure of the dots. I felt they did the more gentle bits quite sensitively; but their ff just goes off the end of the decibel (not to mention the wobble) scale.

Two comments:
1.The announcer made much of 'late medieval' pronunciation. I didn't notice it especially. Wasn't 'Jesu' supposed to have been 'Gee-su' ?

2. David Hill mentioned that 19-year-old Britten may have been influenced by hearing Walton's Belshazzar's Feast. I personally do not hear any of Walton's rhythmic or harmonic fingerprints in A Boy was Born.

There are already a few comments about this piece on the Prom 70 thread about Britten and LLoyd.

I quite agree about the wobble/vibrato in the BBC Singers, at least the women. I also don't notice Belshazzar in the piece. It's a lot more interesting and beautiful (to me anyway) than Belshazzar.

I didn't feel that they should have used the late mediaeval pronunciation, which I could hear from time to time. I can't prove it, but it seems to me most unlikely that young Britten would have known it, and therefore they were probably not singing what he set. If anyone knows any evidence that he did know it, I'd be interested to hear of it.

[ardcarp]

Mary. Yes I've sung it too. It is quite tricky in parts, but for a good chamber choir with 'semi-pro' singers it's do-able and very rewarding. I am much more enthusiastic about the piece than you...in fact it's one of my all-time choral greats. Indeed much of the writing is 'instrumental' but I see that as a strength. (Bach, anybody?) There are certainly some superb choral textures and some very touching moments in the quieter bits (eg In the Bleak Midwinter). BB's use of the variation form is absolutely masterly, and maybe until one has either sung or conducted it one does not realise quite how masterly. I would unhesitatingly cite this piece as evidence of Britten's young genius, if evidence were needed. May I recommend The Holst Singers' CD with St Paul's trebles (John Scott) all directed by Stephen Layton?