Carry on Conducting - Sid James BotD

[Ein Heldenleben]

Britten would NOT have been amused! I’m sure many here will be familiar with Dudley Moore’s take off of Britten and Pears in his ‘Little Miss Britten’ where he lampoons Britten’s composing style and Pears’ slightly strangulated singing. Apparently, Britten was apoplectic with rage when he saw it.

Sadly, if you showed it to a modern audience they would have no idea what was being parodied. The audience there knew exactly what the butt of Moore’s satire was.

Not sure whether he was “apoplectic “ but from the biogs I’ve read he (and Pears ) were very annoyed .They took themselves seriously as artists - quite rightly as Britten was a genius and Pears a major talent. There are one or two chords in the Britten parody which shows what a keen ear Dudley had -though as a musician he wasn’t In the same league as Britten or Pears. What Dudley was really having a dig at was BB’s habit of recycling other music like the folk songs . Thing is some of those arrangements with their subtly altered and veiled harmonies are works of genius in themselves . Way better than Beethoven’s pot boilers.

You’re right or course the humour would be completely lost on a modern audience.

I’ve always wondered whether Britten had much of a sense of humour . One or two private anecdotes I’ve heard suggest that Pears did - but his man -of -the - Theatre humour sometimes didn’t go down well with Britten. He really was a tiny bit pompous.