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Classical Break - Benjamin Britten
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| Benjamin Britten 1913-1976 |
Hunt the Squirrel – 1.20
Hello and
welcome to Classical Break. I’m Rupert Kirkham.
Today’s
programme features music by one of
England’s finest
composers, Benjamin Britten.
November
2013 sees the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Britten, in Lowestoft, on
the Suffolk coast, the coast where he lived and composed for much of his life,
where he built an opera house and a festival, and where he died in December
1976.
The son of a
dentist, he studied at the Royal College of Music in London and privately with
the composer Frank Bridge. He was a brilliant pianist and had a phenomenal
understanding of the capabilities and limitations of all the instruments in the
orchestra.
One of the
last pieces of music Britten composed, he undertook in 4 weeks between October
and November 1974 – two years before his death. This was the Suite on English
Folk Tunes, opus 90, from which our opening piece today was taken. Subtitled,
“A time there was,...” after a phrase in a poem by Thomas Hardy, the Suite
draws from a number of English folk songs and tunes. We heard ‘Hunt the
Squirrel’ – an appropriate little number I felt as we ponder the rights and
wrongs of the badger-culling experiment in Somerset that has just begun. There’ll
be more from Britten’s Suite on English Folk Tunes later in the programme.
But let’s hear next, a piece of music originally
written by the man to whom the Suite on English Folksongs was dedicated – a
collector of folksongs himself, the Australian composer, Percy Grainger. Molly
on the Shore.
Molly on the Shore - Percy Grainger – 3.49
Molly on the
Shore, by Percy Grainger. That came from a collection of Grainger’s tunes
re-set by Britten called ‘Salute to Percy Grainger’.
Next, we
have one of Britten’s most well-known works, from his Variations and Fugue on a theme of Purcell, also known as ‘The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra’,
here’s the fugue.
Fugue from Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra – 2.40
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| Scene from Peter Grimes |
Like most artists, Britten drew his inspiration from life.
He lived, as I mentioned earlier, on the Suffolk coast – a wild and desolate
place, so it’s not surprising that some of his music reflects the strength and
beauty of the sea. In his opera, Peter Grimes,
Britten chooses a story that is
not only set in a coastal fishing
village, but also features a character with some of the problems faced by
Britten as a homosexual in a country that for much of his life, could have
incarcerated him.
He says of the Opera
‘(It is) a subject very close to my heart – the struggle of the individual
against the masses. The more vicious the society, the more vicious the
individual.'
Set in the early 1800’s Peter Grimes is a fisherman who is
accused of killing not one, but two young boy apprentices. The action is broken
up by 4 ‘Sea Interludes’ The climax of the action takes place during a huge
storm.
Here’s the Storm interlude.
Storm interlude from Peter Grimes – 4.13
The Storm
from Britten’s opera, Peter Grimes.
You’re
listening to Somer Valley community radio on 97.5 FM and online at
somervalleyfm.co.uk. I’m Rupert Kirkham and this is Classical Break. If you
want to hear this programme again, or get your friends to listen go to the
website and click LISTEN AGAIN. It’s that simple.
Today in the
100th anniversary year of his birth, we’re listening to music by
Benjamin Britten.
Let’s head
inland now for another number from Britten’s Suite on English Folk Tunes.
Something one assumes good country folk
used to knock back whilst watching the morris dancers do their stuff outside
the village pub in days of yore – cakes
and ale.
Cakes and Ale from English Folk Tunes – 2.24
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| A Ceremony of Carols |
When I was a
lad, I was lucky enough to sing as a treble in the Choir at New College,
Oxford. It was undoubtedly an incredible way to learn about music, and whenever
we saw that we were to perform something
by Britten our spirits rose. There’s only so much Palestrina and Gibbons
you can handle in a week of evensongs!
Our next
pieces come from one of the magical experiences Britten gave me as a chorister
– the singing of his Christmas collection, ‘A Ceremony of Carols.’
Here are
three carols from the piece, Wolcum,
There is no Rose and Deo Gracias.
Ceremony of Carols: Wolcum, There is No Rose, Deo Gracias – 5.00
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| Peter Pears, Tenor |
We’ll hear
some more music for choirs later, but first I want to play you part of
Britten’s song cycle, The Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings.
The libretto
is a series of poems by British poets on the subject of night. It was written
in 1943 when Britten and his partner, Peter Pears – had just returned from 2
years in America and Britten was preparing his first large scale opera – Peter Grimes – which we
heard about earlier. It’s scored for horn and small string ensemble and the
piece has become a central work in both Tenor and Horn repertoire.
In three of
the songs, Prologue, Pastoral and Hymn, Peter Pears is the Tenor, Barry
Tuckwell plays the Horn and the band is the London Symphony Orchestra,
conducted by the composer, Benjamin Britten in a recording made in December
1963.
Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings – 7.00
Now we’re
going back to the chapel to hear another of Britten’s choral works. It’s his
Missa Brevis in D and he dedicated it to George Malcom and the boys of
Westminster Cathedral Choir. It was first performed in 1959 on the occasion of
Malcom’s retirement as organist and choirmaster.
Actually,
this performance is by the boys of
King’s College Cambridge, with Ian Hare at the organ and Sir David Willcocks
conducting.
Missa Brevis in D – 10.05
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| Britten and Pears |
This is
Somer Valley FM and I’m Rupert Kirkham. Today the programme features music by
Benjamin Britten.
Now it’s back
to the song cycles. Britten’s texts for his song cycles operas and other works
came from various sources. The text for his song cycle, Les Illuminations –
sung in French – probably came from the library of WH Auden, who was a friend
of Britten’s with whom he collaborated on a number of projects.
Les
Illuminations is based on a set of rather risqué poems by the French poet
Rimbaud, written, some say, under the influence of mind-altering substances.
They certainly are pretty wierd, but quite advanced for around 1873 when they
were written.
Arthur
Rimbaud was one of the most important precursors of modernism in poetry
although his entire output was created in the space of 3 years and it was
probably this that attracted Britten. Rimbaud was also ...er ‘connected’ to a
fellow poet Paul Verlaine and following a series of rather public scandals
involving Verlaine, Rimbaud put away his quill and set off for Asia and Africa
as a travelling salesman, never to be heard of again. Britten would have liked
that too!
Set for
Tenor or Soprano and strings, we’re going to hear 3 ‘Illuminations’ – Fanfare,
Ville, and Marine. There’s that sea again. The first and third are sung by a
tenor, Peter Pears, in fact, with the English Chamber Orchestra conducted by
the composer and the second by the soprano, Felicity Lott on a 1989 Chandos CD
with the Scottish National Orchestra conducted by Bryden Thomson.
Les Illuminations: Fanfare - Ville - Marine – 5.15
In 1940,
just before they bombed Pearl Harbour, the Japanese government commissioned a
series of works to mark the 2,600th anniversary of the founding of
the Japanese Empire. The next piece was one of those commissions.
Sinfonia Da
Requiem is a symphony written when Britten was 26. It’s in 3 movements, and is probably Britten’s largest
orchestral work for the concert hall.
Anyway, the
Japanese rejected it because he used Latin titles for the movements taken from
the Catholic Requiem and because it was too sombre for them. To be fair, it’s
not something you’d play at a children’s party. I remember when I was at
school, I used it as interval music for our
touring production of Shakespeare’s
Julius Caesar. It was just about long enough for the interval and suitably
demonic for the kind of capers to come in the second half of the play.
Some say that the tone of this piece was influenced by the recent deaths of his Mother and Father.
Here’s the
second movement, performed by the London Symphony Orchestra under Richard
Hickox.
Dies Irae.
Sinfonia da Requiem - Dies Irae – 5.27
I hope I’ve
shown you some of the diversity of music produced by this outstanding English
composer, Benjamin Britten. He was truly an icon in the musical 20th
century. His music is edgy, but accessible and it takes risks. Some of his
music doesn’t get played much these days, which is a shame, but in this 100th
anniversary year, you are likely to find performances of all kinds from
musicians at all levels around the country honouring his contribution to the
English musical heritage.
In this
programme we haven’t even touched on his contribution to the education of young
schoolchildren through his school operas – Noye’s Flood, for example. I hope
that in Classical Breaks to come this year we can play you some of this fine
music which so many schoolchildren have experienced and which, one hopes, has
inspired them to not only tolerate, but actually take an interest in
‘classical’ music amidst the cacophony of sounds and images that are thrown at
them every second of the day.
Lecture
over. We leave you with Jubilate Deo, a good example of Britten’s simpler
writing. It’s a short anthem, written in 1961 at the request of the Duke of
Edinburgh for St. George’s Chapel, Windsor. Goodbye.
Jubilate Deo – 2.21
