Benjamin Britten
With the arrival of Benjamin Britten on the international music scene, many felt that English music gained its greatest genius since Purcell. A composer of wide-ranging talents, Britten found in the human voice an especial source of inspiration, an affinity that resulted in a remarkable body of work, ranging from operas like Peter Grimes (1944-1945) and Death in Venice (1973) to song cycles like the Serenade for tenor, horn, and strings (1943) to the massive choral work War Requiem (1961). He also produced much music for orchestra and chamber ensembles, including symphonies, concerti, and chamber and solo works.
Britten's father was a prosperous oral surgeon in the town of Lowestoft, Suffolk; his mother was a leader in the local choral society. When Benjamin's musical aptitude became evident, the family engaged composer Frank Bridge to supervise his musical education. Bridge's tutelage was one of the formative and lasting influences on Britten's compositional development; he eventually paid tribute to his teacher in his Op. 10, the Variations on a Theme by Frank Bridge (1937). Britten's formal training also included studies at the Royal College of Music (1930-1933).
Upon graduation from the RCM, Britten obtained a position scoring documentaries (on prosaic themes like "Sorting Office") for the Royal Post Office film unit. Working on a tight budget, he learned how to extract the maximum variety of color and musical effectiveness from the smallest combinations of instruments, producing dozens of such scores from 1935 to 1938. He rapidly emerged as the most promising British composer of his generation and entered into collaborative relationships that exerted a profound influence upon his creative life. Among the most important of his professional associates were literary figures like W.H. Auden, and later, E.M. Forster. None, however, played as central a role in Britten's life as the tenor Peter Pears, who was Britten's closest intimate, both personally and professionally, from the late '30s to the composer's death. Pears' voice inspired a number of Britten's vocal cycles and opera roles, and the two often joined forces in song recitals and, from 1948, in the organization and administration of the Aldeburgh Festival.
A steadfast pacifist, Britten left England in 1939 as war loomed over Europe. He spent four years in the United States and Canada, his compositional pace barely slackening, as evidenced by the production of works like the Sinfonia da Requiem (1940), the song cycle Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo (1940), and his first effort for the stage, Paul Bunyan (1940-1941). Eventually, the poetry of George Crabbe drew Britten back to England. With a Koussevitzky Commission backing him, the composer wrote the enormously successful opera Peter Grimes (1944-1945), which marked the greatest turning point in his career. His fame secure, Britten over the next several decades wrote a dozen more operas, several of which -- Albert Herring (1947), Billy Budd (1951), The Turn of the Screw (1954), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1960), Death in Venice (1973) -- became instant and permanent fixtures of the repertoire. He also continued to produce much vocal, orchestral, and chamber music, including Songs and Proverbs of William Blake (1965), the three Cello Suites (1961-1964) and the Cello Symphony (1963), written for Mstislav Rostropovich, and the Third String Quartet (1975).
Britten suffered a stroke during heart surgery in 1971, which resulted in something of a slowdown in his creative activities. Nonetheless, he continued to compose until his death in 1976, by which time he was recognized as one of the principal musical figures of the 20th century.
© Michael Rodman /TiVo
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Britten Abroad
Iain Burnside, Mark Padmore, Susan Gritton
Classical - Released by Signum Classics on 1 Jan 1970
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Benjamin Britten · Billy Budd
Theodor Uppman, Benjamin Britten, Royal Opera House Orchestra
Opera - Released by G.O.P. on 3 Jul 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
WAR REQUIEM (First Performance) 30th May 1962
Classical - Released by The Digital Gramophone on 1 Jan 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Cello Masterpieces of the 19th & 20th Centuries (Remastered 2017)
Mstislav Rostropovich, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Benjamin Britten, Sir Malcolm Sargent
Classical - Released by Jube Classic on 23 Jun 2017
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Robert Schumann: Cello Concerto In A Minor, Op. 129 - Five Pieces In Folk Style, Op. 102
Mstislav Rostropovich, Benjamin Britten
Classical - Released by RHI on 1 Mar 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Salley Gardens
Classical - Released by Prospero Classical on 18 Jun 2021
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Violin Masterpieces: Yehudi Menuhin Live at Blythburgh Church, Aldeburgh, 1958 (Live)
Aurèle Nicolet, Yehudi Menuhin, The Festival Orchestra, Benjamin Britten
Classical - Released by Jube Classic on 24 Apr 2020
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Britten: Owen Wingrave; 6 Hölderlin Fragments; The Poet's Echo
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 4 Jun 1971
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Britten: Spring Symphony - The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra & Reger: Eine Ballett-Suite
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Kathleen Ferrier, Peter Pears
Classical - Released by Intermusic S.A. on 1 Jan 2003
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Britten Conducts Britten (Historical Perfomances, 1956)
Peter Pears, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Benjamin Britten
Classical - Released by SWR Classic on 28 Sep 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ceremony
The Choir of Canterbury Cathedral, Camilla Pay, Tim Harper
Classical - Released by Dean and Chapter of Canterbury on 15 Aug 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Britten: The Prince of the Pagodas, Op. 57
Ballets - Released by Past Classics on 15 Sep 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Benjamin Britten: Peter Grimes
Peter Pears, Sylvia Fisher, Owen Brannigan
Opera - Released by The Digital Gramophone on 14 Aug 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Benjamin Britten: Gloriana
Opera - Released by The Digital Gramophone on 1 Jan 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
A Song in the Wood
Classical - Released by Prospero Classical on 2 Jul 2021
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Britten & Schubert
Robin Tritschler, Iain Burnside
Vocal Music (Secular and Sacred) - Released by Wigmore Hall Live on 24 Nov 2014
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
The Golden Vanity - Music for Boys' Voices
The Choristers of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford
Classical - Released by Lammas on 28 Sep 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Britten's Forever
Cor Vivaldi: Petits Cantors De Catalunya
Classical - Released by Edicions Albert Moraleda on 15 Dec 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Britten: Billy Budd A B.B.C. Third Programme Broadcast, on 13th November, 1960
Benjamin Britten, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Peter Pears
Opera - Released by The Digital Gramophone on 3 May 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Joubert: Concerto for oboe and strings - Briten: Phantasy - Leighton: Concerto for Oboe and strings - McDowall: Y Deryn Pur - McCabe: Concerto for oboe and orchestra
Concertos - Released by Guild GmbH on 15 Mar 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
20th Century English Art Songs: Britten & Quilter
Paul Austin Kelly, Michael Recchiuti
Classical - Released by GM Recordings on 1 Jan 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo