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| | Benjamin Britten: Ripoe for Reassesment? Roy Brewer : MusicWeb |
 | | The result of this wayward virtuosity was that, within a few years of his death, important parts of his extensive output were treated in warily by professional musicians and the musical public, alike, and rarely heard in concert halls or found in the record catalogues of the time. | | | One problem with Britten's music is the deftness with which it can change direction yet remain totally distinctive; there is no guarantee that when a Britten work proves easily accessible the next one will not be a hard nut to crack. | | | Britten did not identify closely with the rather self-conscious English folk song revival espoused by composers such as Ivor Gurney, Butterworth and Vaughan Williams. |
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http://www.musicweb.uk.net/classrev/2001/Sept01/Britten_Brewer.htm
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| | MSN Encarta - Benjamin Britten |
| | Britten's works range in style from the simplest, most lyrical tonality to complex but dramatically effective atonality. | | | From 1939 to 1942 Britten lived in the United States and produced a violin concerto (1939), the Sinfonia da Requiem (1941), and his first opera, Paul Bunyan (1941), which drew on the legends of the North American folk hero of the lumber camps. | | | In addition, he produced incidental music for plays and films; song cycles; and music for children, including The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra (1946). |
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http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/refpages/RefArticle.aspx?refid=761565022
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| | Benjamin Britten |
| | Britten did not write church music because he had services to fill; nor did he write symphonies because it was a standard form that required attention, nor piano music just because he played the piano. | | | Like the animals in Britten's Rejoice in the Lamb, praising and serving God just doing what they were made for, Britten simply did what he was put here to do -- and in the process performed the highest service to music and to the people of his and future generations. | | | Britten's operas helped give Pears an immeasurable boost to his singing career, and Pears became the vocal embodiment of Britten's songs and tenor stage roles. |
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http://www.classicstoday.com/features/f1_0701.asp
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| | Benjamin Britten |
| | Britten's gift for characterization was also displayed in the wide range of sharply defined subsidiary roles and in the orchestra's sea music. | | | Stravinsky and Mahler were important influences, but Britten's effortless technique gave his early music a high personal definition, notably shown in orchestral works (Bridge Variations for strings, 1937; Piano Concerto, 1938; Violin Concerto, 1939) and songs (Les illuminations, setting Rimbaud for high voice and strings, 1939). | | | For Rostropovich he wrote the Cello Symphony (1963) as well as a sonata and three solo suites; for Pears there was the Hardy cycle Winter Words (1953) among many other songs, and also a central part in the War Requiem (1961). |
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http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/britten.html
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| | Benjamin Britten |
| | Britten was extraordinarily precocious; he composed songs before he could read or write. | | | His 1949 "Spring Symphony," commissioned by the Koussevitzky Music Foundation and introduced at the Holland Music Festival, was a major work for soloists, chorus, and orchestra. | | | He had completed a string quartet and an oratorio by age nine, and by the time he was 14 he had written a symphony, five more string quartets, ten piano sonatas, and several other smaller works. |
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http://www.music.vt.edu/musicdictionary/appendix/Composers/B/BenjaminBritten.html
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| | ON THIS DAY 4 1976: 'Genius' composer Benjamin Britten dies |
| | Lord Britten was aptly born on the feast of St Cecilia, the patroness of music, on 22 November, in Lowestoft, Suffolk. | | | Benjamin Britten: "What matters to us now is that people want to use our music" | | | Lord Britten is considered to be among the first British composers to have captured the imagination of audiences at home and abroad. |
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/4/newsid_2519000/2519877.stm
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| | Classical Net - Britten - Pas de Six from Prince of the Pagodas |
| | In addition to his operas, several of which have become fixtures in modern opera houses, Britten wrote a large body of orchestral music, chamber music, songs and song arrangements, secular and church cantatas and non-operatic music dramas, concertos for violin and piano, works for solo instruments, and incidental music for films, radio dramas, and plays. | | | The pagodas dance to the gamelan music inspired by Britten's stay in Bali, while a green salamander approaches the blindfolded Belle Rose. | | | He wrote of Balinese music, "It is a remarkable culture. |
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http://www.classical.net/music/comp.lst/works/britten/pagoda1.html
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| | Benjamin BRITTEN: Biographical Outline (1):Introduction and reputation by Rob Barnett |
| | Decca gave us disc after disc of his music authoritatively interpreted by the composer and performers for whom it was written. | | | Publication was no problem: as John Ireland quipped ‘If Britten can write it Boosey’s can Hawke it.& was, from early on, recorded shortly after it was written or premiered. | | | However Britten’s music seems to speak an internationally acceptable language and to touch more easily on universal issues with which people across the world can identify. |
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http://www.musicweb-international.com/britten
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| | Benjamin Britten |
| | Britten was a peerless interpreter of his own music, of course, though that isn't pertinent to the discussion here. | | | Britten also made a number of important studio recordings, most either as pianist or as conductor of the English Chamber Orchestra, mostly at the Maltings, mostly for London. | | | The latter of these features a cadenza written for Richter by Britten, and is a far more interesting performance than the studio recording Richter made with Riccardo Muti. |
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http://members.macconnect.com/users/j/jimbob/classical/britten.html
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| | BBC - Music / Profiles - Benjamin Britten |
| | Britten Speaks: Listen to him in interviews from 1957 and 1963 | | | The originality and accessibility of Britten's creations changed British musical life forever, but although recognition came early there were many personal struggles. | | | I quite simply call it magic, a quality which would appear to be by no means unacknowledged by scientists, and which I value more than any other part of music. |
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/profiles/britten.shtml
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| | Britten Biographical Information |
| | Peter Pears, Britten, and John Culshaw (a producer from Decca Records). | | | During Britten's year off composing, Peter Pears wished that Britten should never lose faith in music, so he resumed composing after taking a year off. | | | His earliest exposure to music came from his mother, who was an amateur singer. |
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http://www.its.caltech.edu/~tan/Britten/britbio.html
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| | Naxos.com, Your World of Classical Music |
| | Britten's Simple Symphony, for string orchestra, based on tunes written by the composer in childhood, is a useful element in string orchestra repertoire. | | | Britten's chamber music includes a Cello Sonata and three Cello Suites for his friend the Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, a fine Suite for the Welsh harpist Osian Ellis and a Nocturnal after John Dowland for the guitarist Julian Bream. | | | Lachrymae, subtitled Reflections on a Theme of Dowland, a tribute to a still earlier predecessor, the lutenist John Dowland, arranged by the composer shortly before his death from its original viola and piano version is immensely moving, while the early Matinées Musicales, based on the music of Rossini, is at once attractive. |
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http://www.naxos.com/mainsite?pn=Composers&char=B&ComposerID=146
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| | Benjamin Britten's Poetic Alterations |
| | Britten sets the first "this is" and omits the second, which makes the words simple for the listener to understand. | | | Likewise, Britten removes "For this is as much as to challenge" (line 3) despite the text's long-range necessity in Smart's poem, where the surrounding lines all begin with "For;" Britten saves the listener from extra-musical distraction. | | | Sleep brings peace to the soldiers: the dead warriors are comforted by the choirs of angels. |
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http://home.earthlink.net/~akuster/music/britten/alterations.htm
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| | 3quarksdaily |
| | Britten played with Menuhin at the end of the war for survivors of the concentration camps, and the memories he brought back from that time prompted the song cycle he composed not long after, The Holy Sonnets of John Donne. | | | If one takes account of all the poetry settings Britten composed music for, and thinks of the literary imput from Crabbe, Melville, James and Mann, and others, then one really is prompted to consider Britten one of poetry’s, and language’s, most eloquent advocates. | | | People of a certain generation remember those Decca recordings with their texts in print size that made them easy to read, unlike today’s CD equivalents. |
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http://3quarksdaily.blogs.com/3quarksdaily/2005/11/poetry_and_cult.html
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| | Amazon.com: Britten Choral Music: Corydon Singers/ Westminster Cathedral Choir/ Best: Music: Michael Chance,Quentin ... |
| | The subtle, carefully recorded pieces by Britten on this recording are all first rate and are also fascinating. | | | "The Wedding Anthem," written for the marriage of two friends in 1949, is one of Britten's least-performed and -recorded works--unjustly so, considering its universal theme and its first-rate music. | | | These performances are among the best on disc, although some listeners may find the pace of Rejoice in the Lamb a bit too deliberate. |
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http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000002ZHL?v=glance
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| | James Wierzbicki / Benjamin Britten |
| | Crabbe's portraits of the sea at Aldeburgh in part inspired Britten to create ''Peter Grimes,'' and for many listeners it is Britten's musical portraits of that same sea that form the opera's essence. | | | What is not in doubt is that Britten's "Billy Budd" - to a much greater extent than the Herman Melville novel on which it is based - centers on the idea of redemption. | | | To judge from the profundity of the music and the inexorable momentum with which the drama unfolds, Britten is clearly dealing here with an entity - a force - that is as ominous as it is permanent. |
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http://pages.sbcglobal.net/jameswierzbicki/britten.htm
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| | Amazon.co.uk: Benjamin Britten: The Rarities: Music |
| | Britten: Death in Venice; Audio CD ~ Benjamin Britten (Composer) | | | Britten: Canticles Nos 1-5; Audio CD ~ Benjamin Britten (Composer) | | | As she said on rehearing it, "I never thought it possible to hear this forbidden recording after 44 years - this side the tomb - and as I listened unbelieving - it was too much emotionally - the tears streamed down my face." And not just hers. |
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http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005IA6G
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| | Film festival focuses on composer Benjamin Britten - PittsburghLIVE.com |
| | Valuable CDs of Britten performing are available on Decca Records, especially his "Brandenburg Concerti," and BBC Records, of his own music and repertoire from the classical, romantic and modern eras. | | | Ranging from documentaries to art films and general release titles, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble's earSHOT film festival is a welcome supplement to its summer concert offerings. | | | Even more valuable is Britten conducting an orchestra rehearsal -- knowing exactly what he wants and being on top of everything. |
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http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/entertainment/movies/reviews/s_354332.html
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| | Knitting Circle Benjamin Britten |
| | Britten's supremacy is never questioned, but it seems to me that, unlike those great composers, his merits have very little to do with music, and everything to do with wishful thinking." | | | All Proms concerts are broadcast live on Radio 3. | | | Independent on Sunday classical music critic MICHAEL WHITE on whether Aldeburgh in Suffolk should erect a monument to its most famous son, gay composer Benjamin Britten. |
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http://myweb.lsbu.ac.uk/~stafflag/benjaminbritten.html
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| | Classics Today.com - Your Online Guide to Classical Music |
| | Steuart Bedford, who worked with the composer late in his life, is one of today's leading authorities on performance of Britten's music, and together with Langridge he has offered some of the finest renditions of the song repertoire. | | | The inclusion of The Heart of the Matter--a set of Edith Sitwell poems that incorporates Canticle III and three other songs, revised by Pears in 1983 from Britten's original--makes this disc especially attractive for it apparently is the only version still in the CD catalog. | | | Although the music on this program has been scarcely addressed on recordings, we are blessed that the few examples have been excellent. |
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http://www.classicstoday.com/review.asp?ReviewNum=8517
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| | Benjamin Britten |
| | Yes, Britten always had an attraction for teenaged boys, and my father was the apple of his eye, so much so that he was willing to give up music just to be with him. | | | His answer was simple: "Turn off the tape recorder!" He also wasn't too happy about the people recognizing him the night before...... | | | They corresponded and Carpenter used photos of my father and grandfather in the book. |
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http://www.sff.net/people/rothman/britten.htm
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| | Britten Snapshot - brittenpears.org |
| | In America Britten wrote a number of important works, among them the Violin Concerto, the song-cycle Les Illuminations for high voice and strings, and the orchestral Sinfonia da Requiem. | | | The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra: Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell – a cornerstone of the orchestral repertoire – was first performed in the following year. | | | Benjamin Britten was born in Lowestoft, Suffolk, on 22 November 1913. |
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http://www.brittenpears.org/?page=britten
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| | Composer - Benjamin Britten |
| | Britten began composing music when most kids are just starting kindergarten. | | | This was the signal that he wanted to be taken to the piano, though he couldn't play it yet. | | | He was a composer, which means he wrote music. |
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http://www.playmusic.org/stage/composer.html
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| | Britten's Complete Works |
| | Benjamin Butterfield, Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, Simon Streatfeild - | | | Benjamin Luxon, Wilson-Johnson, Wyn-Rogers, Finchley Children's Music Group, Wilks - | | | Peter Pears, Barry Tuckwell, Strings of the London Symphony Orchestra, Benjamin Britten - |
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http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/Strasse/1523/britworks.htm
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| | Composer Page - Benjamin Britten |
| | 'Wonderful performances of two of Britten's finest song cycles, consistently beautiful in vocal quality, and almost miraculous in their integration of clear expressive diction. | | | 'I can highly recommend this CD for the wonderful mixture of Britten's chamber works and the all-round excellent playing' (The Musician) | | | DIAPASON D'OR 'Musically impeccable, carefully wound and tuned, superbly balanced — a magnificent display of sheer beauty of choral sound' (American Record Guide) |
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http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/composer_page.asp?name=britten
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| | On An Overgrown Path: Easter at Aldeburgh |
| | After lunch I buy the Britten and Richter recording of Schubert piano duets recorded live by the BBC in the Jubilee Hall in Aldeburgh, and now released on Decca. | | | I love that recording of the Schubert D940 - the climax (where the pianos are 'phased' quite modernly) is more convincing than anywhere else. | | | And then realise that the hall is the Jubilee Hall, and we are standing at precisely the spot where Britten and Richter played (and recorded) their Schubert recital forty years ago. |
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http://theovergrownpath.blogspot.com/2005/03/easter-at-aldeburgh.html
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| | Benjamin Zander - Bio |
| | Benjamin Zander started to compose music at the age of nine. | | | During his period of study at University he performed regularly as a professional cellist giving recitals and chamber music concerts with the | | | Benjamin and Patricia Zander were married in 1966 and their daughter Jessica was born a few years later. |
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http://www.benjaminzander.com/bio.asp
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| | Brandenburg Concertos by Benjamin Britten at jsbach.org |
| | Not being a purist or an "expert," I can only tell you that these are FUN to listen to, while all my other recordings find me looking for the crank on the side of the CD player in an attempt to speed up the thing. | | | I don't know who at Borders finds this "essential", as none of my friends even put the Britten recording in their top five Brandenburgs. | | | Why anybody would purchase the Britten recording is beyond me. There, I said it. |
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http://www.jsbach.org/brittenbrandenburgconcertos.html
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| | Colorado Britten Society |
| | ~ to cultivate an appreciation of Britten's music throughout | | | ~ to promote live performances of Britten's music | | | Composing is like driving down a foggy road toward a house. |
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http://www.coloradobrittensociety.homestead.com
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| | Britten, Benjamin, Baron Britten of Aldeburgh on Encyclopedia.com |
| | Britten is considered the most significant British composer since Purcell. | | | BRITTEN, BENJAMIN, BARON BRITTEN OF ALDEBURGH [Britten, Benjamin, Baron Britten of Aldeburgh] 1913-76, English composer. | | | His many song cycles and choral works include A Boy Was Born (1933) and A Ceremony of Carols (1942). |
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http://www.encyclopedia.com/html/b/britten.asp
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| | Classical Net - Basic Repertoire List - Britten |
| | Amazon - UK - Germany - Canada - France - Japan - ArkivMusic - CD Universe | | | UK - Germany - France - Japan - ArkivMusic - CD Universe | | | Galina Vishnevskaya (soprano), Sir Peter Pears (tenor), Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (baritone), Benjamin Britten/London Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, Melos Ensemble London, Bach Choir |
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http://www.classical.net/music/comp.lst/britten.html
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| | CLASSICAL MUSIC ARCHIVES: Biography of Benjamin Britten |
| | Find the music of Benjamin Britten in the Archives. | | | Few composers have caught the public's imagination in their lifetime as vividly as did Britten; each new work was eagerly awaited and absorbed. | | | also featured neglected works by composers whom Britten and his colleagues deemed to deserve reappraisal. |
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http://www.classicalarchives.com/bios/codm/britten.html
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| | Literary Encyclopedia: Benjamin Britten |
| | Britten also composed a symphonic cycle for soprano solo and orchestra for Our Hunting Fathers (1936), with words by Auden. | | | Britten studied with Frank Bridge (1879-1941), John Ireland (1879-1962) and Arthur Benjamin (1893-1960) at the Royal College of Music, and his early work comprised incidental music to documentary films and expressionist plays by Christopher Isherwood and W. Auden, notably for The Ascent of F6. | | | This entry, however, concentrates on Britten's operas rather than on his song-cycles, cantatas, instrumental writing, revisions of earlier music for soloists, chorus work and orchestra work; and it must pass with a mere mention his prominence as a pianist accompanying Pears, and as a conductor. |
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http://www.literaryencyclopedia.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5001
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| | Benjamin Britten |
| | 1930 - Begins studies at the Royal College of Music with John Ireland (composition) and Arthur Benjamin (Piano) | | | Benjamin Britten was one of Britain's greatest composers and musicians. | | | He is especially known for his operas and other vocal works, many of which he composed for his partner Peter Pears. |
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http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/Strasse/1523/britten.htm
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| | About Benjamin Britten |
| | After leaving Gresham's Britten went on to train at the Royal College Of Music. | | | His early works comprise incidental music for films and radio dramas and also music to accompany plays by his friend and peer at Gresham's W. Auden | | | Some of Britten's most well known pieces of music are Peter Grimes, The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra and Rejoice in the Lamb, and of course many, many more. |
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http://www.jthomson.demon.co.uk/ben.htm
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| | Benjamin Britten, Composer |
| | He loved music and began to compose at the age of 5. | | | Benjamin Britten was the son of a dental surgeon and an amateur singer. | | | He was the first musician to be gifted with the title of "Lord" by the Queen. |
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http://www.dsokids.com/2001/dso.asp?PageID=220
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| | BBC - BBC Four - Audio Interviews - Benjamin Britten |
| | BBC - BBC Four - Audio Interviews - Benjamin Britten | | | Internationally-acclaimed British composer, noted especially for his magnificent operas, Benjamin Britten was also an outstanding pianist and conductor. | | | You will need RealPlayer to access these clips. |
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/audiointerviews/profilepages/brittenb1.shtml
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| | VH1.com : Benjamin Britten : Artist Main |
| | Sign up now to receive every bit of juicy, up-to-the-minute news, album release info and much more delivered straight to your inbox! | | | Several of Britten's works, including "A Ceremony of Carols," are performed on a seasonal sch... | | | Add a link to your "Benjamin Britten" fan site on VH1.com! |
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http://www.vh1.com/artists/az/britten_benjamin/artist.jhtml
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| | Cantus In Memoriam Benjamin Britten - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
| | This bell tells of the death of Britten - it is the funeral bell. | | | Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten (1977) is a composition by Estonian composer Arvo Pärt, written to mourn the death of English composer Benjamin Britten on 4 December 1976. | | | After three beats of silence a tubular bell is struck three times very quietly (pianissimo) with 12 beats between the strikes and gap of 18 beats between the groups of three. |
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantus_In_Memoriam_Benjamin_Britten
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| | Famous British Paedophiles - Benjamin Britten |
| | Britten attended the Royal College of Music, and his early works comprise music for documentary films, radio dramas, and expressionist plays by W. Auden and Christopher Isherwood. | | | He possessed a remarkable ability to compose for voice and text, and his work is characterized by extremely personal instrumentation and melodies. | | | Recognition came early in Britten's career with a performance in 1934 of the choral piece A Boy Was Born (1933). |
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http://www.glgarden.org/ocg/archive1/benbrit.html
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| | Malaspina Great Books - Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) |
| | Britten's best known orchestral work is his Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell&; more generally known as The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra. | | | Britten's later operas&; include the Japanese inspired Church Parables and his operatic version of Thomas Mann's Death in Venice. | | | For rare and hard to find works we recommend our Alibris list of titles about Benjamin Britten. |
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http://www.malaspina.org/home.asp?topic=./search/details&lastpage=./search/results&ID=841
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| | IU Opera Theater 2005-6 Season presents: A Midsummer Night's Dream |
| | Benjamin Britten’s masterpiece is considered by many to be one of the finest musical settings of a Shakespearean text. | | | His unique compositional style enhances the hilarious story of a group of lovers who, spending a night in a forest, find themselves drawn into a web of pranks, magic, and enchantments by nocturnal fairies, gods, and others. | | | Set in imaginary times in the palace of Theseus and the Wood. |
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http://www.music.indiana.edu/publicity/opera/2005-2006season/midsummer.html
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