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Lord Benjamin Britten

November 22, 1913 - December 4, 1976
born in Lowestoft, Suffolk, England, composed during the Modern period

Biography

With the arrival of Benjamin Britten on the international music scene, many felt that English music gained its greatest genius since Purcell. A composer of wide-ranging talents, Britten found in the human voice an especial source of inspiration, an affinity that resulted in a remarkable body of work, ranging from operas like Peter Grimes (1944-1945) and Death in Venice (1973) to song cycles like the Serenade for tenor, horn, and strings (1943) to the massive choral work War Requiem (1961). He also produced much music for orchestra and chamber ensembles, including symphonies, concerti, and chamber and solo works. Britten's father was a prosperous oral surgeon in the town of Lowestoft, Suffolk; his mother was a leader in the local choral society. When Benjamin's musical aptitude became evident, the family engaged composer Frank Bridge to supervise his musical education. Bridge's tutelage was one of the formative and lasting influences on Britten's compositional development; Britten eventually paid tribute to his teacher in his Op. 10, the Variations on a Theme by Frank Bridge (1937). Britten's formal training also included studies at the Royal College of Music (1930-1933).

Upon graduation from the RCM, Britten obtained a position scoring documentaries (on prosaic themes like "Sorting Office") for the Royal Post Office film unit. Working on a tight budget, he learned how to extract the maximum variety of color and musical effectiveness from the smallest combinations of instruments, producing dozens of such scores from 1935 to 1938. He rapidly emerged as the most promising British composer of his generation and entered into collaborative relationships that exerted a profound influence upon his creative life. Among the most important of his professional associates were literary figures like W.H. Auden, and later, E.M. Forster. None, however, played as central a role in Britten's life as the tenor Peter Pears, who was Britten's closest intimate, both personally and professionally, from the late '30s to the composer's death. Pears' voice inspired a number of Britten's vocal cycles and opera roles, and the two often joined forces in song recitals and, from 1948, in the organization and administration of the Aldeburgh Festival.

A steadfast pacifist, Britten left England in 1939 as war loomed over Europe. He spent four years in the United States and Canada, his compositional pace barely slackening, as evidenced by the production of works like the Sinfonia da Requiem (1940), the song cycle Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo (1940), and his first effort for the stage, Paul Bunyan (1940-1941). Eventually, the poetry of George Crabbe drew Britten back to England. With a Koussevitzky Commission backing him, the composer wrote the enormously successful opera Peter Grimes (1944-45), which marked the greatest turning point in his career. His fame secure, Britten over the next several decades wrote a dozen more operas, several of which -- Albert Herring (1947), Billy Budd (1951), The Turn of the Screw (1954), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1960), Death in Venice (1973) -- became instant and permanent fixtures of the repertoire. He also continued to produce much vocal, orchestral, and chamber music, including Songs and Proverbs of William Blake (1965), the three Cello Suites (1961-1964) and the Cello Symphony (1963), written for Mstislav Rostropovich, and the Third String Quartet (1975).

Britten suffered a stroke during heart surgery in 1971, which resulted in something of a slowdown in his creative activities. Nonetheless, he continued to compose until his death in 1976, by which time he was recognized as one of the principal musical figures of the twentieth century. ~ Michael Rodman, All Music Guide

Continued…

Selected Discography

A Midsummer Night's Dream / Britten, London SO

Britten - Billy Budd / Keenlyside · Langridge · John Tomlinson · LSO · Hickox

Britten Choral Music: Corydon Singers/ Westminster Cathedral Choir/ Best

Britten Nocturne For Tenor, 7 Obligato Instruments & Strings Op.60

Britten: A Ceremony of Carols

Britten: Cello Suites Nos. 1 & 2

Britten: Cello Suites Nos. 1-3

Britten: Favorite Folk Song Arrangements [Australia]

Britten: Folk Song Arrangements

Britten: Folk Song Arrangements, Vol. 2

Britten: Holy Sonnets, Billy Budd, etc. / Britten, Glossop, Pears, et al

Britten: Peter Grimes

Britten: Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings; Nocturne; Phaedra

Britten: String Quartets Nos. 1 & 2

The Best Of Britten [Australia]

War Requiem

Timothy Brooks says:

03-15-2009

I haven't heard much of Britten's music before this (Peter Grimes, Sea Interludes). . . i t ' s so deep, and satisfying. His orchestratio n is absolutely fantastic. Most British music I'm not fond of...but this...wow.

Jessica A. Ruiz says:

10-07-2008

woah... this is like thinking music. It gets wheels in your head to turn that you never knew you had, and yet you don't know or even care to know why!
At least, that is how I feel.
Just wanna let them keep going, doing what they do...

philipdcartw r i g h t says:

11-20-2007

Superb

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