Release Date: 31 May 2005
Label: Naxos - Ex Select Products / Naxos Classics
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 747313222223
Genres: Classical
Composer/Series: BRITTEN
Description
Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)Folk Song Arrangements 2Benjamin Britten occupies an unrivalled position inEnglish music of the twentieth century and a place of thegreatest importance in the wider musical world. WhileElgar was in some ways part of late nineteenth-centuryGerman romantic tradition, Britten avoided the trapoffered by musical nationalism and the insular debt tofolk-music of his older compatriots, while profiting fromthat tradition in a much wider European context. He maybe seen as following in part a path mapped out byMahler. He possessed a special gift for word-setting andvocal writing, a facility that Purcell had shown and thatwas the foundation of a remarkable series of operas thatbrought English opera for the first time into internationalrepertoire. Tonal in his musical language, he knew wellhow to use inventively, imaginatively, and, above all,musically, techniques that in other hands often seemedarid. His work owed much to the friendship and constantcompanionship of the singer Peter Pears, for whomBritten wrote many of his principal operatic r??les andwhose qualities of voice and intelligence clearly had amarked effect on his vocal writing.Born in the East Anglian seaside town of Lowestoftin 1913, Britten showed early gifts as a composer,studying with Frank Bridge before a less fruitful time atthe Royal College of Music in London. His associationwith the poet W.H.Auden, with whom he undertookvarious collaborations, was in part behind his departurewith Pears in 1939 for the United States, whereopportunities seemed plentiful, away from the pettyjealousies and inhibitions of his own country. Theoutbreak of war brought its own difficulties. Britten andPears were firmly pacifist in their views, but wereequally horrified at the excesses of National Socialismand sufferings that the war brought. Britten's nostalgiafor his native country and region led to their return toEngland in 1942, when they rejected the easy option ofnominal military service as musicians in uniform infavour of overt pacifism, but were able to give concertsand recitals, often in difficult circumstances, offeringencouragement to those who heard them. The reopeningof Sadler's Wells and the staging of Britten'sopera Peter Grimes started a new era in English opera.The English Opera Group was founded and a series ofchamber operas followed, with larger scale works thatestablished Britten as a composer of the highest stature,a position recognised shortly before his early death byhis elevation to the peerage, the first English composerever to be so honoured.It was in some sense a certain nostalgia that laybehind Britten's many folk-song arrangements. He had aparticular gift for bringing out the qualities implicit in amelody and text, something displayed to admirableeffect in his version of The Beggar's Opera. The first setof songs from the British Isles was published in 1943,and further sets were published in the following years.The last set of arrangements were made in the l
Tracklisting
Dariia Lytvishko
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; Marin Alsop
Alice Di Piazza; Basel Sinfonietta; NDR Bigband; Titus Engel
Anna Alas i Jove; Miquel Villalba
David Childs; Black Dyke Band; Nicholas Childs
Various
Various
Lully
