Prom 70 - 3.09.13: Britten & Lloyd

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

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.

I didn't hear this, but I agree that those particular fingerprints are inaudible to me in the Britten work, too. Perhaps he meant that the long stretches of unaccompanied choral writing in B F got the young composer's ideas flowing?

[Mary Chambers]

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.

I'm not unenthusiastic! I just feel that it doesn't show Britten's genius for word-setting quite as much as other pieces, even some earlier ones. In the Bleak Midwinter and especially the Corpus Christi Carol struck me as the best examples in this piece. The brilliance of the structure and the beauty of the sound are undeniable.

I've sung a lot of Britten, but not this one. The Hymn to St Cecilia is probably the closest, and I adored doing that. I fully agree that singing a piece is the best way of appreciating it. No doubt that applies to conducting, too. I haven't tried that - not unless you count conducting the Junior Choir when I was 17!

[Nick Armstrong]

At ardcarp's request, I've merged the two threads about this concert... and created a new one for mercia's BF anecdote!

[Finzi4ever]

At ardcarp's request, I've merged the two threads about this concert... and created a new one for mercia's BF anecdote!

where is it then?

[Nick Armstrong]

where is it then?

http://www.for3.org/forums/showthrea...ast-quot-story!

[Finzi4ever]

many thanks - think I had heard it before, come to think of it, but a pleasure to rediscover.