Release Date: 31 July 2003
Label: Naxos - Ex Select Products / Naxos Classics
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 747313220427
Genres: Classical
Composer/Series: BRITTEN / BERKELEY
Description
Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) Lennox Berkeley (1903-1989)Settings of Poems by W.H. AudenBenjamin Britten's post-war pre-eminence as an operacomposer has tended to overshadow the considerable achievements of his earlieryears. Between his official Opus 1, the Sinfonietta of 1932, written when hewas nineteen, and the completion of Peter Grimes in 1945, he was fluently andprolifically writing works in every genre, many of which remain far too littleknown even today. Among these are five major works involving texts written ordevised by the poet W.H.Auden: the song cycles Our Hunting Fathers (1936) andOn This Island (1937), the choral and orchestral Ballad of Heroes (1939), theoperetta Paul Bunyan (completed in 1941), and the choral Hymn to St Cecilia(1942). In addition, Britten set a number of other poems by Auden during thisperiod which remained unpublished during his lifetime and which are included onthis disc.Britten and Auden first met in July 1935 when they were bothworking for the GPO Film Unit, an organization dedicated to the making ofeducational documentary films. Auden became one of the major influences on theyoung composer and while Britten confessed to being somewhat intimidated byAuden's brilliant intellect, it was undoubtedly a partnership of mutualadmiration and respect. Their first collaboration was for the film Coal Face in1935, soon followed by Night Mail in the following year. It was the success ofthe latter in particular that encouraged the two men to embark on projects of amore substantial nature and in 1936 Auden devised the text for one of Britten'smost important early works, described by the composer as his real Op.1, theorchestral song-cycle Our Hunting Fathers. It was soon after the premi?¿re ofthat work at the 1936 Norfolk and Norwich Festival that Britten acquired a copyof a newly published volume of Auden's poetry entitled Look, Stranger!, twopoems from which, Underneath the abject willow and Night covers up the rigidland, were dedicated to him. He set the first of these in November 1936 as thesecond of his Two Ballads for two voices and piano. During May and October ofthe following year, he completed eight further settings, five of which wereselected for the cycle On This Island, Op.11, for solo voice and piano, firstperformed in November 1937 at a BBC contemporary music concert by the soprano SophieWyss and the composer. The score was published by Boosey & Hawkes inOctober 1938 and originally designated 'Vol.1': it seems likely that Brittenintended to use the three remaining settings in a second volume which nevermaterialised. On This Island was Britten's first published group of songswith piano. The set is conceived more as a sequence of self-containedvignettes, perhaps reflecting the recent experience of writing the Variationson a theme of Frank Bridge, rather than attempting the quasi-symphonic unity ofOur Hunting Fathers. They are also notably simpler in their relatively orthodoxapproach to word-setting and use of mo
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
Yaqi Yang; Margarita Parsamyan; Robynne Redmon; Minghao Liu; Frank Ragsdale; Kim Josephson; Kevin S
Vilmos Csikos; Olivier Lechardeur; Manon Lamaison
Tomas Cotik; Martingale Ensemble; Ken Selden
