Travelling exhibition at 25%_Travelling 2 05/07/2013 14:38 Page 2
Celebrating the centenary of Benjamin Britten in 2013
Benjamin Britten 1913 - 1976
The music Britten was also an acclaimed conductor of his own and other composers’ works. Here he rehearses Bach’s ‘Christmas Oratorio’ at Long Melford Church, 1967. Photo: Jack Phipps
The Britten centenary is being celebrated around the world. For further information on what’s happening, and about the man and his music, visit:
Britten composed his first piece aged six and wrote more than 700 works before he was 18. He went on to produce a large and varied body of work: music for solo instruments, chamber ensemble, orchestra and ballet. He began composing choral, vocal and chamber music while still a student, notably his opus 1, Sinfonietta. Some of his earliest professional work involved providing incidental music for film, theatre and radio drama.
Britten at his composing desk in 1950. Photo: Roland Haupt.
Opera was a staple of Britten’s output. His interest in the voice, especially the tenor voice of Peter Pears, is clear from the large number of songs, arrangements and song cycles. Britten also wrote with young audiences and performers in mind.
John Piper’s costume design for the Recorder of Norwich from Gloriana, the opera written in honour of the Queen’s coronation in 1953.
www.britten100.org
Key works 1930 A Hymn to the Virgin
Costume design by Desmond Heeley for the ‘Salamander’ - a prince cast under a magic spell - from the ballet The Prince of the Pagodas, first performed at the Royal Opera House, 1957.
written whilst ill in bed at school
1932 Sinfonietta his ‘opus 1’ for ten players
1934 Simple Symphony
By the time Britten was twelve he had already compiled an impressive list of works. This handwritten catalogue, written in 1927, illustrates how prolific the young composer was.
based on tunes he wrote as a boy in Lowestoft
1935 Friday Afternoons a song cycle for children written for his brother’s school
1937 Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge dedicated to and based on a theme by his mentor
1937 Night Mail
Britten was interested in bringing music to the community. Above he demontrates the ‘slung mugs’ to suggest rain drops in his 1958 community opera, Noye’s Fludde. Photo: Kurt Hutton. Below is one of the headdresses worn by child performers in the first performance.
score for a documentary film with words by WH Auden
1940 Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo Sonnets for tenor and piano, written for Pears
1942 A Ceremony of Carols based on medieval Christmas text for treble voices and harp
1943 Serenade for string orchestra, tenor and horn
1945 Peter Grimes the opera that made Britten famous; based on a poem by Crabbe
1945 The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra written for an educational film based on a theme by Purcell
1947 Albert Herring a comic chamber opera set in a small Suffolk town
1948 Saint Nicolas performed in the first concert of the first Aldeburgh Festival
1951 Billy Budd based on a story by Herman Melville and featuring an all-male cast
1953 Gloriana first performed as part of the coronation celebrations
1956 The Prince of the Pagodas Britten’s only full length ballet - with a gamelan inspired score
1958 Noye’s Fludde
Albert Herring was composed especially for the English Opera Group (EOG), a small touring ensemble of singers and musicians. It premiered at Glyndebourne in 1947, with Peter Pears in the title role (above). Today English Touring Opera tour the work in much the same way as the EOG (below).
a community opera telling the story of Noah and his ark
1960 A Midsummer Night’s Dream based on the Shakespeare play and written for Aldeburgh’s Jubilee Hall
1961 Cello Sonata the first of five works written for the cellist Mstislav Rostropovich
1962 War Requiem
Britten composed A Hymn to the Virgin, a setting of a 14th centruy devotinal text, for chorus in 1930.
Britten’s great pacifist work first performed at the new Coventry Cathedral
1964 Curlew River the first of three ‘Church Parables’ based on a Japanese play
1973 Death in Venice
Britten was inspired to compose especially for a number of notable musicians such as Kathleen Ferrier, Janet Baker, Julian Bream, Dennis Brain and Mstislav Rostropovich. However, the best known collaborator remained his partner, the tenor Peter Pears (right). He wrote the Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo, the first of numerous works for him, in 1940 (above).
Britten’s last opera; first performed at Snape Maltings
1975 String Quartet No. 3 almost Britten’s final work and rich in nostalgia and pathos
Britten conducting his Symphony for Cello and Orchestra in the Great Hall, Moscow Conservatoire, in 1964. It was the second of the works Britten wrote for Rostropovich.
Britten–Pears Foundation The Red House Golf Lane Aldeburgh Suffolk IP15 5PZ 01728 451700 enquiries@brittenpears.org www.brittenpears.org
Photo: Photo: Philip Philip Vile Vile