Britten: St. Nicolas / Christ's Nativity / Psalm 150

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Cat No: 8557203

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Release Date: 10 January 2003

Label: Naxos - Ex Select Products / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 747313220328

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: BRITTEN

Description
Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)St Nicolas Christ's Nativity Psalm 150In 1947, Benjamin Britten received a commission from PeterPears' old school Lancing College for a work to celebrate its centenary thefollowing year. A cantata based on the legend of Saint Nicolas was proposed andEric Crozier, who had worked with Britten on the opera Albert Herring andprovided the speaker's commentary for The Young Person's Guide to theOrchestra, was engaged to undertake the libretto. Britten completed thecomposition sketch of the work in just three weeks, perhaps spurred on by the challengeand excitement of writing his first large-scale work for amateur performers.The first performance was given on the opening day of the first AldeburghFestival in June 1948 with the 'official' premi?¿re given at Lancing College thefollowing month, with the composer conducting on both occasions.The vocal and orchestral forces required for Saint Nicolaswere conditioned by the occasion for which it was intended: solo tenor,four-part chorus, a separate girls chorus, piano duet, organ, percussion andstrings. In addition, the congregation is required to participate in twowell-known hymn settings, each of which rounds off the two halves of thecantata. Of these performers, the solo tenor, who takes the part of Nicolashimself, the first percussionist and the leaders of each of the five stringsections need to be professionals. Otherwise, Britten tailors his music to takeaccount of the limitations of less-experienced performers, but, in common withhis later works for children such as The Little Sweep and Noye's Fludde,without any sense of compromise or writing down. Very little is known of the personal history of the actualNicolas, the fourth-century Bishop of Myra. Crozier's text is based on thevarious legends surrounding him, using a series of episodes from his life tobuild up a rounded and sympathetic portrait of the saint. In the Introduction,the chorus implores Nicolas to 'Strip off your glory...and speak!'. His spiritappears to stand in worship with them, as with his 'faithful congregation longago'. In the second movement, the chorus tells of The Birth of Nicolas in alively Allegretto accompanied by strings and piano with imaginativecontributions from the percussion, including one of Britten's favouriteinstruments, the whip. At the end of each stanza, the organ, otherwise silentin the movement, accompanies the simple chant of 'God be glorified', at firstsung by a treble voice but finally, as Nicolas reaches adulthood, by the solotenor. In the third movement, accompanied by strings alone, Nicolas relateshow, after the death of his parents, he devoted himself to God by renouncingall material wealth and worldly pleasures. In He journeys to Palestine, theship's sailors mock Nicolas for prophesying a storm ahead when the sky isclear; the ship's onward voyage, the outbreak of the tempest and Nicolas'prayer for the turbulence to cease are vividly portrayed. In the fifthmovement, Nicolas is c
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