The percussionist James Blades. Image courtesy of Photographers Direct
Timpani piece for Jimmy for timpani and piano (8 – 9 December 1955, Britten aged 41)
Dedication James Blades
Duration 1’30”
Background and Critical Reception
Britten and Pears travelled widely in the mid-1950s, and it appears that while they were stopping over in Istanbul, Britten found time to write this short piece for the English Opera Group percussionist, James Blades.
Certainly the Britten Thematic Catalogue entry pins it down to either of the two dates above, where Britten informs Imogen Holst by letter that he has completed the piece ‘on a free morning’.
Thoughts
The Britten of the Cabaret Songs makes a brief comeback for this entertaining piece, where the piano takes the lead melodically but the real hard work is given to the timpanist. This is especially true in the central section, where the same theme is essentially turned over in a different key, before the music heads home again for a cheeky final sentence.
My suspicion is that Britten, as in so much of his music, was capturing the personality of the person he was writing for! In doing so he composed an intriguing lollipop that could double as a tricky specialist quiz question.
Recordings used
James Blades (timpani), Joan Goossens (piano) (Decca)
Quite a close recording for this brief piece, but the slightly dampened sound quality actually enhances its 1930s links.
Spotify
Perhaps not surprisingly, as Blades’ version seems to be the only one available, no interpretations of this piece can be found on Spotify.
Also written in 1955: Tippett – Sonata for Four Horns
Hymn to St Peter, Op.56a for choir (SATB) with treble solo (or semi-chorus) and organ (summer 1955, Britten aged 41)
Dedication Written for the Quincentenary of St Peter Mancroft, Norwich, 1955
Text From the gradual and the alleluia and verse of the Feast of the Holy Apostles St Peter and St Paul
Language Latin English
Duration 6′
Audio
A clip of the recording made by St Paul’s Cathedral Choir, conducted by John Scott, with organist Huw Williams. With thanks to Hyperion.
Background and Critical Reception
Britten’s first piece of church music for six years (the Wedding Anthem in 1949 being his last) was written to commemorate the quincentenary of St Peter Mancroft in Norwich in 1955. The anthem is based on the chant Tu es Petrus, which is aired on the organ before the choir begin to sing.
In his notes for the first instalment of Hyperion’s English Anthem series, Dr William R McVicker describes how ‘the Latin text is sung by a solo treble, with echoes of the plainsong theme, juxtaposed with Britten’s own harmonic language. This conveniently draws the ancient to the modern as the chorus translates the text the treble sings.
Paul Spicer, writing in his Britten Choral Guide for Boosey & Hawkes, picks out the central section, a kind of Scherzo, noting its similarities to the equivalent section of the larger-scale Hymn to St Cecilia. For him, the Hymn to St Peter ‘makes a very effective concert or liturgical work’.
John Bridcut, meanwhile, suggests slightly mischievously that Britten may have used the ‘St Peter’ commission as another chance to write some music in honour of his own Peter.
Thoughts
Britten wrote several of these hymns in his lifetime, paying homage to the saints Cecilia, Peter and Columba, as well as the Virgin Mary. In each he finds an elevated mood, with some transfigured music that often suggests the listener could be on another shore.
The Hymn to St Peter doesn’t find that place as consistently as the Hymn to St Cecilia, but then they are written for very different occasions. There is a ceremonial feel to this anthem, particularly with the trumpet stop fanfares on the organ that blast out the chant theme, but when the treble solo is heard a mood of peaceful contemplation descends over the piece. It alternates between these two different forms of energy before running to a soft and rather atmospheric close.
This anthem should undoubtedly be heard more often, for as Dr McVicker notes above, its integration of ancient and modern is solemn yet very effective.
Recordings used
Choir Of St. John’s College / George Guest, Brian Runnett (organ) (Decca)
Choir of New College Oxford / Edward Higginbottom, Steven Grahl (organ) (Novum)
The Sixteen / Harry Christophers, Margaret Phillips (organ) (Coro)
Finzi Singers / Paul Spicer, Andrew Lumsden (organ) (Chandos)
As Paul Spicer indicates, there are two very valid approaches to the Hymn to St Peter – a concert performance or a ‘churchy’ one. George Guest conducts in the latter discipline, a beautifully shaped reading, while Edward Higginbottom and his charges similarly imply the presence of a congregation.
The Finzi Singers and the Sixteen give more of a concert performance of this work, both notable for their brighter tones and more obvious vibrato, with more female singers presumably used. Either of the four versions does justice to the spirit of the hymn.
Spotify
Edward Higginbottom conducts the choir of New College Oxford in their new recording here. Harry Christophers and the Sixteen can be heard here, while the Finzi Singers are conducted by Paul Spicer here. Additionally, recordings by the St John College Cambridge Choir, conducted by Christopher Robinson, can be heard here.
Also written in 1955: Stockhausen – Klavierstücke V–VIII
Born 100 years ago today in Lowestoft, Benjamin Britten. A pianist…
…conductor….
…occasional sportsman…
…and ultimately a great composer:
Thank you for the music!
Images courtesy of the Britten100 website:
(1) 1921, playing piano at home
(2) 1964, rehearsing the Cello Symphony in Moscow with Mstislav Rostropovich
(3) 1955, playing tennis at the Red House
(4) 1945, at the Old Mill, Snape
It has been a tricky year for BBC Radio 3 in terms of balancing three high profile composer anniversary celebrations. As if the double centenaries of the birth of Wagner and Verdi were not enough, we have – of course – the centenary of Britten’s birth, celebrated all year by this blog.
In the past a blanket approach has led to saturation of anniversary composers on the radio – I think especially of Mozart and Shostakovich in tandem in 2006 – so it is to Roger Wright’s immense credit that this year – to me at least! – has not suffered from Britten overkill on the airwaves.
Yet here we are on the verge of his birthday weekend, where Radio 3 will hand over much of its daytime and evening programming to the music and music making of Britten. Within this framework there is plenty of room for manoeuvre, as it is only right to highlight Britten the artist, a superb interpreter of other people’s music at the piano or on the conductor’s rostrum. With the inclusion of poetry alongside, and discussions of his life with experts such as John Bridcut and Colin Matthews, there is plenty of variety to be found over the weekend.
Prominent highlights are a rare concert performance of Albert Herring from the Barbican Centre, conducted by Steuart Bedford, with Andrew Staples as the boy who goes off the rails, Christine Brewer as Lady Billows and a fine cast that includes Roderick Williams (Mr Gedge), Matthew Rose (Superintendent Budd), Marcus Farnsworth (Sid) and Catherine Wyn-Rogers (Mrs Herring). A good synopsis of the opera can be found on the Radio 3 website.
Britten’s three church parables, radical departures that bring the Japanese ‘Noh’ into direct contact with more obviously Western religion and storylines, will be performed in recorded concerts by the Mahogany Opera, directed by Roger Vignoles. Having seen them in Southwark Cathedral I can confirm the raw intensity of these interpretations, which can be heard one per day from Saturday through to Monday – Curlew River, The Burning Fiery Furnace and The Prodigal Son each on air at 2pm.
After the launch, at 4.30pm on Friday 22 November (Britten’s birthday), Oliver Knussen conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in a typically invigorating program from Britten’s own Snape Maltings Concert Hall. The Cantata Academica is followed by the Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes and the Spring Symphony, where Knussen will be joined by soloists Claire Booth, Monica Groop, Robert Murray and Christopher Purves, as well as three distinct Norwich choirs. Knussen is the perfect choice, having met Britten as a child and worked as the Aldeburgh Festival Director – and he includes a world premiere performance, Locke’s Theatre, by Ryan Wigglesworth.
It is heartening to see an emphasis on amateur performers within the concerts. Best of all, perhaps, is the performance of Noye’s Fludde, live from St Margaret’s Church in Lowestoft on Sunday 24 November at 6pm, conducted by Britten biographer Paul Kildea and featuring many children from the town. Andrew Shore sings Noye, Felicity Palmer his wife.
Back at Snape, a family concert from the Maltings on Saturday 23 November at 11am brings together choirs from Bury St Edmunds, Woodbridge and Ipswich to sing the late Welcome Ode, while the BBC Symphony Orchestra will perform The Young Person’s Guide To The Orchestra and the Soirées Musicales under Andrew Gourlay. Complementing these will be contemporary works from Anna Meredith, Jay Richardson and Luke Fitzgerald.
Meanwhile at Aldeburgh Parish Church, Ben Parry conducts a performance of the wonderful cantata Saint Nicolas, with Alan Oke in the title role and the Aldeburgh Voices and Suffolk Ensemble representing the community.
Away from the big concerts lie some fascinating mini-series. Britten by Night will enjoy the composer’s preoccupation with the nocturnal at midnight on the Friday and Saturday, while the String Quartets will get their turn in a series of three concerts from the Benyounes Quartet.
Festival of Britten, meanwhile, will enjoy the composer’s dual role as a performer, where he cultivated some extraordinary recital relationships with Sviatoslav Richter, Clifford Curzon and Mstislav Rostropovich among others. I do however wish we could hear more entire works than soundbites in these programmes, for I’m not sure I could listen to Britten and Rostropovich in a single movement of Schubert’s Arpeggione Sonata without wanting to hear the whole thing!
All in all, though, this looks like a great and fun weekend, with a nice balance of light and shade about it. The theme of celebration is reflected, but there is enough variety through the day to give a detailed rendering of the composer’s portrait. Good Morning Britten will be there in spirit – or at least will be providing pertinent links, we hope, at useful points in the listening day. I hope you enjoy what you hear!
Full details of the radio listings for Radio 3’s Britten 100 weekend can be accessed by clicking here for a special page on the BBC Radio 3 website, and you can also keep up to date via their Twitter handle, @BBCRadio3.
Act III, scene 3 (Trio) – Gloriana by Jane Mackay – her visual response to Britten’s music, used with many thanks to the artist. Jane Mackay’s Sounding Art website can be found here
O solitude, Z406 – Purcell realization for high or medium voice and piano (pre 11 March 1955, Britten aged 41)
Dedication not known
Text Katherine Philips
Language English
Duration 7′
Audio clips with thanks to Hyperion
Original, with Susan Gritton (soprano) and The King’s Consort / Robert King
Realization, with John Mark Ainsley (tenor) and Graham Johnson (piano)
Background and Critical Reception
O solitude, writes Robert King, ‘is one of Purcell’s masterpieces’. It is based on 28 repetitions of a ground bass, which will have surely appealed to Britten’s methodical mind when carrying out the realisation.
The Purcell original is thought to date from the mid-1680s, and sets a translation of Antoine Girard de Saint’s La solitude, as completed by Katherine Philips. King describes the word painting with its ‘desolately falling intervals, ‘restless’ meanders in its melisma…and ‘as only death can cure’ drops to the bottom of the voice’.
Thoughts
Britten seems to have picked out some of Purcell’s most profound secular music for realisation, and O solitude is one of the most intimate of utterances, the singer alone in chosen isolation.
Because of this it is surprisingly moving, and Britten’s piano part ensures the attention is placed firmly on the singer, with just the slightest elements of harmony. There is some elaboration in the right hand but it stays very much in the shadow of the vocal.
Hearing Susan Gritton in the original made me think it would be difficult for Britten to expand on such a moving setting, but he treats it with complete reverence for the vocal line – which I should have expected, of course!
Recordings used
Mark Padmore (tenor), Roger Vignoles (piano) (Harmonia Mundi)
Simon Keenlyside (baritone), Graham Johnson (piano) (Hyperion)
Ainsley sings this beautifully, the hush towards the end matched by Johnson’s exquisite voicing. Yet I would once again point you in the direction of the original in the version by Gritton, whose voice went right through me!
Spotify
Neither the original or the realisation can be found on Spotify, though the clips above give an idea of each version.
Redwing (c) Graham Catley, whose rather wonderful blog Pewit can be found here
Alpine Suite for recorder trio (February 1955, Britten aged 41)
1 Arrival at Zermatt
2 Swiss Clock (Romance)
3 Nursery Slopes
4 Alpine Scene
5 Moto perpetuo: Down The Piste
6 Farewell to Zermatt
Dedication Mary Potter
Instrumentation Three recorders: 2 descant and 1 treble
Duration 8′
Audio
A clip from each of the six movements can be heard on the All Music website, performed by The Flautadors and recorded on the Dutton Epoch label.
Background and Critical Reception
Britten was always quick to spot an opportunity for composition, even more so if one of his friends was involved. The Alpine Suite came about through a relatively unhappy accident. Britten, Pears and the artist Mary Potter were on a skiing trip to Zermatt, when Potter fell and injured her ankle. As she was confined to barracks Britten thought it would be chivalrous to write a piece of music for her to practice during the day, for performance in the evening.
And so began a short, six-movement work for the three recorders the trio had with them at the time.
It seems Britten enjoyed writing for the combination, for it provided him with an outlet away from the emotional heaviness of the stage works he had been writing for the last few years.
Thoughts
It is easy to imagine how the three of them would have enjoyed the perky Arrival at Zermatt, or the rather wistful Farewell to Zermatt that ends the suite some six minutes later. In between are a variety of dance-influenced pieces, something of a legacy owed to Gloriana in the marriage of dated rhythms and melodies with modern harmonies. The ticking of the Swiss clock (a Romance is rather charming, Nursery Slopes captures the skiiers’ early steps in a faltering fugue that gains confidence as it comes together, while Down The Piste has an unstoppable momentum, almost out of control.
It is doubtful that anybody would recognise these as Britten immediately without being told beforehand, but his compositional qualities are there – economy, melodic invention and – for seasoned listeners – a piece that spends much of its time in a bright and breezy C major. It provides a pleasant diversion in an otherwise emotionally fraught output of the early to mid-1950s.
Recordings used
The Flautadors (Dutton Epoch)
A very fine version from the Flautadors, sympathetically recorded, part of an imaginative collection of all the recorder works by Britten and Rubbra as part of an intriguing addition to Dutton’s Epoch label of British classical music.
Spotify
Unfortunately this piece is not available on Spotify, but a snippet of each movement (nearly half the entire work!) can be heard over on the All Music website as above.
Also written in 1955: Lutosławski – Dance Preludes (second version)
Interior with Old Man and Old Woman Spinning after Quiringh van Brekelenkam. Photo (c) Worcester College, University of Oxford
The deaf woman’s courtship – folksong arrangement for two voices and piano (ca 1950s)
Dedication not known
Text Traditional (American)
Language English
Duration 1’30”
Background and Critical Reception
It appears this Appalachian folk song was arranged for two voices and piano by Britten in the 1950s, for Peter Pears and Norma Procter to sing as part of their joint recitals. However Mervyn Cooke suggests in more detail however that the initial subject was in fact Kathleen Ferrier, for in his notes for Gerald Finley’s recording on Hyperion he recounts Britten’s tale of how Ferrier sang ‘in a feeble, cracked voice, the perfect reply to Peter’s magisterial roar’. It was finally published in 2001.
This song can however be given by one ambitious singer who fancies trying their hand at imitating the opposite sex! Either way it has become one of Britten’s more popular pieces for a recital encore.
Thoughts
This is one of those Britten songs that brings the house down as an encore, and I well remember the husband and wife team of Philip Langridge and Ann Murray doing just that at the Wigmore Hall a few years back. The old woman is desperately hard of hearing until the man makes a proposal of marriage, at which point her senses miraculously return.
It is very silly, of course, giving the singer a chance to do all manner of silly voices, and the exaggerated piano part gives the impression of slamming the lid down at the end!
Recordings used
Philip Langridge (tenor), Felicity Lott (soprano), Graham Johnson (piano) (Naxos)
Gerald Finley (baritone), Julius Drake (piano) (Hyperion)
It is surprising this song has not been recorded more often, given its entertainment value. Gerald Finley excels in it, to the extent you can almost imagine him cross dressing for the old woman’s part! Felicity Lott, too, is barely recognisable opposite Philip Langridge, flattening her voice and sounding much more American, with Graham Johnson enjoying the emphatic chords as punctuation.
Spotify
Philip Langridge and Felicity Lott team up with Graham Johnson here, while something of a rarity.
Fieldfare (c) Graham Catley, whose rather wonderful blog Pewit can be found here
Scherzo for recorder quartet (November 1954, Britten aged 40)
Dedication Aldeburgh Music Club
Instrumentation Four recorders: descant, treble, tenor, bass (or 2nd tenor)
Duration 3′
Background and Critical Reception
It transpires that the recorder manufacturer Carl Dolmetsch had sent Britten some instruments in the hope this would inspire him to write his first music for recorders. Characteristically Britten obliged, but not in the way his commissioner might have expected or hoped! This piece was written for the Aldeburgh Music Club, and there is a memorable library picture of Imogen Holst conducting a team of recorder players, including Britten and Pears, out on the Meare during the festival.
There was not much more forthcoming for the instrument from Britten either, though he did write an Alpine Suite for private performance, of which later on, and game the instrument some distinctive parts in Noye’s Fludde or A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Thoughts
It is refreshing at this stage in Britten’s career to hear a completely new sonority in his published work – a sign of his continuing development as an instrumental composer, despite the intensity of focus on the stage and the voice in recent years.
The Scherzo is quite a fun piece, with lots of written out trills for its introduction, and then a perky theme given in block chords, before a more graceful slower trio section is introduced.
It has to be said that listening to this exposed a form of prejudice in my musical listening, for hearing the sound of recorders together always takes me back to school. Once over that low lying barrier, however, it proves easy to appreciate the charm and wistful nostalgia that goes behind this piece, which would undoubtedly make a good encore.
Recordings used
The Flautadors (Dutton Epoch)
The Scherzo is part of a disc from The Flautadors, who have imaginatively compiled all the recorder works by Britten and Rubbra as part of an intriguing addition to Dutton’s Epoch label of British classical music. It is very well played and recorded.
The Holly and the Ivy – folksong arrangement for high voice and piano (date unknown)
Dedication not known
Text Traditional
Language English
Duration 2’30
Audio clip
A clip of the only recording of this arrangement, made by Felicity Lott and Graham Johnson, can be heard on the All Music website
Background and Critical Reception
Britten made two arrangements of the famous carol The Holly and the Ivy – one for choir, completed by July 1957, and this short version for voice and piano, about which very little is known – and as an educated guess I have placed it here.
Philip Reed, in his booklet note for the complete folksongs as issued by Collins Classics in 1995, says that ‘no direct evidence linking it with one of the published folksong collections has emerged’, but that ‘it is a characteristic Britten arrangement which revitalizes a familar – over familiar? melody and is quite different in approach to the a cappella version.
Thoughts
The Holly and the Ivy is such a well-known and well-loved Christmas tune that it is a daring hand indeed who decides to take it on in a newly formed arrangement. Britten was of course well qualified to do that, but this realisation does to me at least feel a bit superfluous. Perhaps it was conceived with Christmas recitals with Pears in mind.
The words are slightly different to those we are used to – the ‘playing of the merry harp’, for one, and while Britten’s arrangement certainly keeps the cold and frosty feel of Christmas, it almost deliberately puts a few alien harmonies and extra notes in to make sure we’re not as cosy as we might have been. An alternative arrangement is never a bad thing, and I may feel differently about this one by Christmas, but on this occasion the original wins hands down.
Recordings used
Felicity Lott (soprano), Graham Johnson (piano) (Naxos)
Jamie MacDougall (tenor), Malcolm Martineau (piano) (Hyperion)
The bright timbre of Felicity Lott’s voice is ideal for this rendition, with perky support from Graham Johnson.
Spotify
Lott and Johnson can be found here, part of the definitive modern collection of Britten folksong arrangements curated by Graham Johnson for Collins Classics in 1995.
Interior of Coventry Cathedral, 15 November 1940 by John Piper. (c) The Piper Estate
Canticle III: Still falls the rain, Op.55 (The Raids, 1940, Night and Dawn) – for tenor voice, horn and piano (27 November 1954, Britten aged 40)
Dedication Noel Mewton-Wood
Text Edith Sitwell
Language English
Duration 11’30”
Audio clip using the recording made by Anthony Rolfe Johnson (tenor), Michael Chance (countertenor) and Graham Johnson (piano). With thanks to Hyperion.
Background and Critical Reception
Once again a Britten opera is immediately followed by a canticle. This was a relatively fallow period of composition for Britten, who after all had completed three operas in quick succession in Billy Budd, Gloriana and The Turn of the Screw. The reception accorded to Gloriana was a factor in his lying low.
Once again he turns to a theme and variations form, as in The Turn of the Screw, though this time the structure is close knit and restricted to a theme and six variations from just the horn and the piano. The tenor sings Edith Sitwell’s allegorical poem The Canticle of the Rose, which also bears the subtitle The Raids, 1940. Night and Dawn.
Completed in 1955, the canticle was incorporated into a larger work in 1956 called The Heart of the Matter, which included other settings of Sitwell. It is dedicated to the Australian pianist Noel Mewton-Wood, a close friend of both Britten and Pears, who sadly took his own life in December 1953.
Michael Short’s booklet notes for Hyperion’s 1992 recording of the canticle (made by Anthony Rolfe Johnson, Michael Thompson and Roger Vignoles) explain how Britten incorporates ‘a type of sprechgesang at the climactic moment where the poet quotes a phrase from the end of Christopher Marlowe’s play Doctor Faustus’.
Thoughts
Although Britten’s third canticle is less obviously ‘sacred’ than the second or indeed the first, it is every bit as emotive and thought provoking – perhaps the composer’s most pointed work in this form.
This is a stark reminder of the war, both through Edith Sitwell’s graphic poetry and Britten’s equally harrowing realisation. The horn, often a source of comfort in the Serenade for tenor, horn and strings, assumes a rather different form here, much more austere in style and uncompromising in musical language.
Try as it might the music never fully breaks away from its tonal centre of B flat. Normally this is a source of good things for Britten, but in this case provides scant solace from the horrors of the text. The oft-heard refrain, ‘still falls the rain’, is written rather in the style of Purcell and becomes a haunting epitaph.
When witnessed in concert this is a striking and powerful utterance, nowhere more so than when Britten approaches the final cadence in typically oblique fashion. The moment of resolution, when it finally arrives, is the moment you realise you’ve been holding your breath for the last two minutes, but still need the silence afterwards.
Recordings used
Peter Pears (tenor), Dennis Brain (horn), Benjamin Britten (piano) (recorded at the Aldeburgh Festival, 21 June 1956) (BBC Legends)
Peter Pears (tenor), Barry Tuckwell (horn), Benjamin Britten (piano) (Decca)
Anthony Rolfe Johnson (tenor), Michael Thompson (horn), Graham Johnson (piano) (Hyperion)
Philip Langridge (tenor), Frank Lloyd (horn), Steuart Bedford (piano) (Naxos)
Ian Bostridge (tenor), Timothy Brown (horn), Julius Drake (piano) (Virgin Classics)
Mark Padmore (tenor), Richard Watkins (horn), Julius Drake (piano) (Wigmore Hall Live)
An illustrious discography is headed by the very first recording of this work, captured by the BBC at the 1956 Aldeburgh Festival – the only instance of Dennis Brain performing the horn part. Pears’s voice is flatter here than on his Decca version, which suits the harrowing Sitwell text. It just has the edge over the 1961 studio recording, where Barry Tuckwell is on fine form.
To be truthful any of the versions listed above are more than ample communicators of the anguish in Sitwell and Britten’s work, though Mark Padmore’s vocal refrain does carry an incredible emotional clout, even when compared to seasoned Britten tenors such as Langridge, Rolfe Johnson and Bostridge. Langridge’s recording is part of a version of The Heart of the Matter, with readings of Sitwell from Dame Judi Dench. To be honest each of the six horn players listed above plays with great feeling and skill.
Spotify
The attached playlist includes a number of versions, with the Decca recording of Pears, Tuckwell and Britten, Padmore’s new version with Watkins and Drake, released just this month, and the versions headed by Langridge and Bostridge. As a bonus is a relatively new recording from Stone Records, sung by Daniel Norman with Richard Watkins and Hugh Webb – itself part of a new recording of The Heart of the Matter.
Also written in 1954: Stravinsky – In Memoriam Dylan Thomas
Good Morning Britten 