Benjamin Britten - Collector's Edition (37 Cds)

Ian Bostridge, Peter Pears, Robert Tear, Simon Rattle, etc...

Disc 1: 1-3) Sinfonia da Requiem Op.20 4-8) Four Sea Interludes and Passacaglia from ‘Peter Grimes’ Op.33 9-23) The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra Op.34 (Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell)
Disc 2: 1) Canadian Carnival Op.19 P 1982 14.01 2-13) Diversions for piano (left hand) and orchestra Op.21 P 1991 14) Scottish Ballad Op.26 P 1982 15.15 15) An American Overture Op.27 10.27 16) Occasional Overture Op.38 7.12 17) Building of the House Op.79 P 1991 5.05
Disc 3: 1-4) Piano Concerto Op.13 P 1999 5-7) Violin Concerto Op.15 P 1978/1992 8) Young Apollo Op.16 P 1982 7.37
Disc 4: 1-4) Simple Symphony Op.4 5-15) Variations on a Theme by Frank Bridge Op.10 16) Prelude and Fugue Op.29 8.48 17) Lachrymae Op.48a* 16.28
Disc 5: 1-9) Symphonic Suite from ‘Gloriana’ Op.53a P 1994 10-14) Cello Symphony Op.68 P 1988 15) Men of Goodwill P 1984 8.30
Disc 6: 1-3) Sinfonietta Op.1 P 1998 4) Russian Funeral P 1995 5.47 5-9) Suite on English Folk Tunes: ‘A time there was…’ Op.90 P 1986 10-14) Matinées Musicales Op.24 (Second Suite after Rossini) 15-19) Soirées Musicales Op.9 (First Suite after Rossini) 20-24) Rossini Suite original version of Soirées Musicales P 1988
Disc 7: 1-33) The Prince of Pagodas Op.57
Disc 8: 1-16) The Prince of Pagodas Op.57 (continued)
Disc 9: 1) Rhapsody for String Quartet 7.06 2-4) Quartettino 5) Elegy for solo viola 7.25 6-9) String Quartet in D
Disc 10: 1) Phantasy for oboe and string trio Op.2 13.17 2-5) Three Divertimenti for string quartet 6-9) String Quartet No.1 in D Op.25
Disc 11: 1-3) String Quartet No.2 in C Op.36 4-8) String Quartet No.3 Op.94
Disc 12: 1-9) Cello Suite No.1 in G Op.72 10-14) Cello Suite No.2 in D Op.80 15-23) Cello Suite No.3 Op.87
Disc 13: 1-4) Holiday Diary Op.5 5-8) Three Character Pieces 9-11) from Sonatina romantica 12-16) Five Walztes 17-19) Two Lullabies for Two Pianos 20-21) Introduction & Rondo alla burlesca Op.23 No.1
Disc 14: 1-5) Suite for violin and piano Op.6 6-10) Cello Sonata in C Op.65 11-16) Six Metamorphoses after Ovid for solo oboe Op.49 17-25) Nocturnal after John Dowland Op.70
Disc 15: 1-18) War Requiem Op.66
Disc 16: 1-3) War Requiem Op.66 (continued) 4-15) Spring Symphony Op.44
Disc 17: 1-3) Hymn to St Cecilia Op.27 4-15) A Ceremony of Carols Op.28 16-20) Missa brevis in D Op.63 21) 21 Festival Te Deum Op.32† 6.27 22-28) Rejoice in the Lamb Op.30 (Smart)† 29) Te Deum in C† 7.59 30) Jubilate Deo† 2.29
Disc 18: 1) A Hymn to the Virgin 3.23 2-10) Saint Nicolas Op.42 11) Hymn to St Peter Op.56a 5.35 12) A Hymn of St Columba – Regis regum rectissimi Op.56a 25.40 13-20) Sacred and Profane Op.91
Disc 19: 1-19) The Little Sweep – A Children’s Opera in three scenes Op.45 20-26) A Boy was Born Op.3 27) A Shepherd’s Carol 4.06
Disc 20: 1-14) Noye’s Fludde Op.59 15-21) AMDG 22) The Ballad of Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard 9.54
Disc 21: 1-11) The Company of Heaven 12-14) Ballad of Heroes Op.14 15-17) Praise We Great Men
Disc 22: 1-10) Les Illuminations Op.18 11-18) Serenade for tenor, horn and strings Op.31 19) Now sleeps the crimson petal (Tennyson) 3.02 20-27) Nocturne Op.60
Disc 23: 1-4) Quatre Chansons Françaises 5-9) Our Hunting Fathers Op.8 10-13) Folksong arrangements 14-16) Phaedra Op.93 17-21) Five French Folksong arrangements
Disc 24: 1-7) Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo Op.22 8-16) Holy Sonnets of John Donne Op.35 17-21) On This Island Op.11 22-29) Winter Words Op.52
Disc 25: 1-5) The Five Canticles 6-12) Folksong arrangements
Disc 26: 1-2) Two songs by Thomas Hardy 3-6) Beware! – Three Early Songs 7-9) Two songs by W.H. Auden 10-12) Three rhymes by William Soutar 13-15) Tit for Tat 16-17) Two Ballads for two voices and piano 18-24) Folksong arrangements 25-30) Folksong arrangements (continued)
Disc 27: 1) The Queen’s Epicedium 7.54 2-9) ORPHEUS BRITANNICUS 10-14) Suite of Songs for high voice and orchestra 15-16) ORCHESTRATIONS OF SCHUBERT & SCHUMANN
Disc 28: 1-30) Paul Bunyan
Disc 29: 1-21) Paul Bunyan (continued)
Disc 30: 1-24) Peter Grimes
Disc 31: 1-21) Peter Grimes (continued)
Disc 32: 1-17) The Turn of the Screw
Disc 33: 1-16) The Turn of the Screw (continued)
Disc 34: 1-20) A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Disc 35: 1-21) A Midsummer Night’s Dream (continued)
Disc 36: 1-20) The Rape of Lucretia Op.37
Disc 37: 1-10) Scenes from Peter Grimes Op.33 11-15) Folksong Arrangements

Benjamin Britten was born on the day of the Patron Saint of Music – St. Cecilia – 22nd November in 1913 in Lowestoft. He showed remarkable skill at composition from his earliest days. In 1924 he met Frank Bridge (1879-1941), a fine composer in his own right, and became his pupil; through him he developed an appreciation of contemporary music with scores by Bartók and the Schönberg school, particulary Berg. In 1930 he entered the Royal College of Music and developed the pianistic skills which made him such a brilliant interpreter of both his own music and other greats particularly Mozart and Schubert. From these times date the beautiful A Hymn to the Virgin, Quatre Chansons Françaises and the Sinfonietta, his official Op. 1. He visited Vienna in 1934 and saw Wozzeck but family resistance prevented him studying with Berg (who, in any case, died from blood poisoning caused by an insect sting a year later). He worked for some years in the film unit of the General Post Office where he met W.H. Auden whose poetry inspired the brilliant song cycle Our Hunting Fathers. The experience in the film unit enabled him to develop the expressive immediacy and technical abilities – often using small and unconventional resources – which would assist his composition of operas in the years to come. In 1939 he decided to follow Auden to America, accompanying him was the tenor Peter Pears (1910-1986) who was to be the inspiration behind so many great operatic roles and song cycles. There he composed the Sinfonia da Requiem, the Michelangelo Sonnets and the First Quartet. His first opera, Paul Bunyan, to an Auden libretto, was also composed there but then withdrawn (it was revived for the Aldeburgh Festival in the year he died). He started to get the pangs of homesickness especially when he read, by chance, an article by E.M. Forster on the Suffolk poet Crabbe (whose work was to lead to arguably his greatest success) and he returned to England in 1942. He wrote A Ceremony of Carols and Hymn to St. Cecilia (another Auden text) during this year. For British Opera the date 7th June 1945 will always remain a red-letter day as it heralded the premiere of a masterpiece, Peter Grimes. The triumph not only established Britten as Purcell’s successor as Britain’s greatest music dramatist but its numerous performances abroad showed that Britain had an international composer celebrity. The Rape of Lucretia was premiered the following year as was the work by which Britten is probably best remembered – certainly by thankful schoolchildren for their guide to the Orchestra. Here he subjects the theme by Purcell to a series of ingenious variations played by each member of the orchestra and then as groups and finally a fugue where everything comes together in a simply unforgettable coda. Indeed when one examines Britten’s output it is hard not to credit him with at least one work of genius, if not a masterpiece, virtually every year for the rest of his composing life – whether it be an opera, for example The Turn of the Screw in 1954 or A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 1960; a choral work, for example Spring Symphony in 1949 or the War Requiem in 1961, a large vocal work, for example Serenade for tenor, horn and strings in 1943, Nocturne in 1958 and Phaedra in 1975; a smaller vocal work, for example the Canticles of 1947, 1952, 1954, 1971 & 1974; the works he wrote for Mstislav Rostropovich – the Cello Sonata in 1961, the Cello Symphony in 1963 and the three Solo Cello Suites in 1964, 1967 & 1971; the two remaining string quartets in 1945 & 1975 and a full length ballet The Prince of the Pagodas in 1956. Besides setting many classic poets from Britain including Blake, Burns, Coleridge, Donne, Hardy, Keats, Jonson, Milton, Owen, Shakespeare, Shelley, Spenser, Tennyson and Wordsworth he also set texts in French (Hugo, Rimbaud and Verlaine), Italian (Michelangelo), German (Hölderlin) and Russian (Pushkin). He was also partly responsible for the reawakening of interest in the music of his great predecessor, Henry Purcell by making realizations of a large number of his works. He also launched the music festival in his adopted town of Aldeburgh.

Price: $158.98