Benjamin Britten

[drogulus]

    That comment about horrid modern music isn't just a joke. It says something about his music, which explores extremes of beauty and ugliness. I find Britten to be a very uncompromising composer, and such single-minded devotion is usually found among avant-gardists. Britten seems to have come upon the idea that there are more expressive opportunities in shattering tonal expectations without leaving tonality behind than there would be by adopting an alternative.

     After my recent immersion in the Cello Symphony and the War Requiem I listened to Walton's Belshazzar's Feast. By comparison it sounds like Elgar with a Broadway sensibility superimposed (it might have been called Belshazzar!). This isn't really a knock on Walton, a composer I admire, but it shows the astonishing way Britten freed himself from tradition without disowning it, as well as the extent that other composers were either unable or unwilling to do so.

[mjwal]

I've never been able to take Belshazzar's Feast quite seriously anyway (I love Walton's 1st symphony and enjoy a few other pieces). The War Requiem, agreed, is on another plane. Various Britten works already mentioned continue to impress me too (as in "make a deep impression on"), one of my favourites not mentioned so far, I believe, is the Nocturne for tenor and ensemble. My first recording was Robert Tear's, on Argo LP, which I still like, then the studio version by Peter & Ben, then their live version on BBC Legends, which I slightly prefer despite the cloudier sound, then the Collins version now on Naxos with Philip Langridge. I had to listen to the latter a few times before I could enjoy it, so different is it from that Pears sound that Tear copied (? - my assumption). He rather shockingly shouts "no more!" in the Wordsworth poem, but it is effective. The climax of the Shakespeare sonnet is rather underplayed, I find; there I must prefer Pears' or Tear's more piercing emotionalism. This last setting of the cycle is the most moving Britten ever did, in my view, only rivalled by the "Elegy" in the Serenade and "Before Life and After" in Winter Words - not to forget the War Requiem's "Strange Meeting". There's a sad but defiant yearning in these settings that puts them with Wolf's Michelangelo settings in my personal pantheon.

[Mandryka]

Here are two of my favourite recordings:

[karlhenning]

How 'bout that War Requiem, eh?

Spiffy page here.

[bhodges]

The War Requiem is one of my favorite works, although one I don't listen to that often (too intense). 

I'm seeing it in a few weeks with Lorin Maazel and the New York Philharmonic--part of his big final month as conductor.  Very much looking forward to it, since the last time I heard it (some 4-5 years ago) was unsatisfying: a dedicated, well-meaning chorus and orchestra, but they really weren't able to handle the music.  But I have a hunch Maazel may really respond to this piece.

--Bruce

[karlhenning]

The War Requiem is one of my favorite works, although one I don't listen to that often (too intense). 

Yes, it isn't the sort of thing to just toss into the changer on a whim.

Speaking of which . . . this weekend, I am taking the vocal score home and am listening to The Turn of the Screw, twice.

[snyprrr]

I hear the Lloyd-Webber/Marriner Cello Sym. (w/Walton) on Philips is an unbelieveably great and unique sounding recording?

[karlhenning]

The Cello Symphony is yet another Britten work I've yet to listen to.  Ran into many of those, reading the brief Phaidon bio.

[Lethevich]

The cello symphony is top-drawer, somewhere between the sinfonia da requiem and violin concerto in mood, if I recall correctly.

[bhodges]

Speaking of which . . . this weekend, I am taking the vocal score home and am listening to The Turn of the Screw, twice.

What's the occasion, Karl?  I have still not heard this piece, and have Daniel Harding's recording of it in the big "to listen to" pile.

--Bruce

[springrite]

The Cello Symphony is yet another Britten work I've yet to listen to.  Ran into many of those, reading the brief Phaidon bio.

You should definately get to this work ASAP, right after your finish turning that screw!

[drogulus]

    The Cello Symphony is first rank Britten, and therefore a 20th century masterpiece IMNSHO.

[Nick]

What about that Piano Concerto, Op.13? I happen to really like this piece. The one I've got is with Richter on the piano and Britten conducting.

Another work I think that's overlooked is the Prelude and Fugue, Op.29 for orchestra. Great piece of music that!

[karlhenning]

What's the occasion, Karl?  I have still not heard this piece, and have Daniel Harding's recording of it in the big "to listen to" pile.

The occasion, Bruce, is simply that I've checked out a vocal score from the library 

[karlhenning]

You should definately get to this work ASAP, right after your finish turning that screw!

There's got to be a box of some sort in my future, Paul . . . .

[bhodges]

The occasion, Bruce, is simply that I've checked out a vocal score from the library 

Oh...I thought you were perhaps...conducting it! 

--Bruce

[karlhenning]

Oh...I thought you were perhaps...conducting it! 

Not at this time . . . .

[karlhenning]

I divided the two acts of The Turn of the Screw between two evenings; a little too intense to immerse myself in all at once.

I'd say I enjoyed the opera, only "enjoy" isn't quite the word.  Then, I almost called the piece brilliant, but that's not quite the word, either.  It is a powerful, impressive work;  its powers focused yet more intensely, I think, both by the chamber scoring, and the frequent simplicity of Britten's musical language.

It's a long time since I read James's story;  back when I had read it more recently, I should have thought it impossible for opera.  At that time, I should have been predisposed not to be happy with any stage liberties a librettist might take with the text.  But in the event, I think the libretto and Britten's illumination of it, miraculously faithful to James's intent. "The worst possible construction," and all that.  It's really a frightful story, and the miasmic understatement is part of the fright . . . and the opera overall I find a tour de force.

[Lethevich]

TotS is rather difficult, indeedie. At least the bleakness of Grimes was accompanied by some wonderful rich Romanticism - TotS is more razor-sharp in its focus and this can be uncomfortable. Not a single impish melody to relieve the pressure.

[karlhenning]

TotS is rather difficult, indeedie. At least the bleakness of Grimes was accompanied by some wonderful rich Romanticism - TotS is more razor-sharp in its focus and this can be uncomfortable. Not a single impish melody to relieve the pressure.

Well, there's the nursery rhyme that Flora and Miles sing in unison, but that's just part of the eeriness.