Benjamin Britten & His Festival

Description

Ahead of next year's Britten centenary, Tony Palmer's 1967 classic film is made available again. It's a behind-the-scenes look at the Aldeburgh Festival, co-founded by Benjamin Britten along with singer Peter Pears and writer Eric Crozier, and the opening by The Queen of the new concert hall at Snape.

Sean Day-Lewis of The Daily Telegraph raved, "A superb film (which) may well achieve the status of a classic, repeated again and again over the years... the brilliant editing (was) of the highest quality, making a natural partnership of music and picture."

With: Benjamin Britten, Peter Pears, Imogen Holst, John Culshaw, Sviatoslav Richter, Julian Bream, Margaret Price, Henry Moore, Colin Graham, James Bowman, Owen Brannigan, Robert Tear, Heather Harper, Sir William Walton, Joyce Grenfell, E. M. Forster, Osian Ellis, The Vienna Boys Choir and The English Chamber Orchestra.

Music featured includes: A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Burning Fiery Furnace, The Building of the House, Nocturnal, Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, The Golden Vanity, A Ceremony of Carols, and the Spring Symphony.