A busy week for me means a break from #TheCompleteBritten and not many posts on here. Take care.
09.03.2026 06:40
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A busy week for me means a break from #TheCompleteBritten and not many posts on here. Take care.
Fargo is 30.
Beggars belief that people think of the Coens as misanthropic & cold when they end a film as touchingly as this.
(But yes, they do think the world is full of very dumb, venal & greedy people but *gestures everywhere* they have a point)
‘Two more months’
youtu.be/lj1CqBBMT54?...
I always come back to a negroni in the end
#NowDrinking #NowWatching
“The only love affair I have ever had was with music.” Maurice Ravel was born 151 years ago today. Here's my Gramophone cover story from last year's 150th celebrations!
www.gramophone.co.uk/content/feat...
I'm seeing it again in Manchester next Friday. Might still be a few tix?
Nottingham tonight, then again in Manchester a week today.
Grimes Ahoy!
(Almost)
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9846102--walton-symphonies-nos-1-2-orb-and-sceptre
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9839081--huw-watkins-fanfare-symphony-no-2-concerto-for-orchestra
This week has a real WoW factor courtesy of William Walton and Huw Watkins, as two of Britain's best orchestras slap down symphonic calling cards by compatriots past and present on my symphony & orchestral #NewReleases playlist, updated every #NewReleaseFriday.
▶️ open.qobuz.com/playlist/513...
You're not the only person to say that about the singing, but I really liked it.
#TheCompleteBritten #51
Sinfonietta, Op. 1 for chamber ensemble (1932)
Dashed off in under three weeks, Britten's Op. 1 is a dazzling display of compositional virtuosity that melds his modern and modernist influences into a tightly-wraught mini-masterpiece. This is a cracking performance.
2. Lift Boy
It's a bit of a surprise to find these little songs nestling between Britten's ambitious Opp. 1 & 2. Maybe they were intended to appeal to his publishers, OUP, who were taking their sweet time over the Sinfonietta, Phantasy Quartet, but who made a lot of money from songs for schools.
#TheCompleteBritten #52
Two Two-Part Songs for boys’ or women’s voices and piano (1932 rev. 1933)
1. I Lov’d a Lass
Originally titled Two Antithetical Part Songs, presumably to emphasize their contrasting styles and subjects. The first has a traditional feel, while the second is bang up-to-date.
Tell them I absolutely loved this!
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9831113--willows
#NewReleases2026 #38 Kuusisto's extraordinarily personal performance of The Lark Ascending is like hearing it for the first time. A perfect curtain raiser to a moving and mesmerizing sequence of contemporary American music that I've already listened to three times through. Record of the Year stuff!
No, the broadcast was in 1930 I think. IIRC Pierrot Lunaire was also on the programme. I can hunt down the reference if you like.
Yeah that looks höerrible.
I'll listen out for that.
And Qobuz.
Find all the music I've listened to so far on my Youtube and Qobuz playlists. Youtube:
The Sinfonietta and the Concerto are the work of an astonishing talent who, at the tender age of 18, can transform a host of influences into music of great compositonal virtuosity and expressive power. But his apprenticeship isn't quite over yet.
Despite the Sinfonietta's accomplishment, do we hear Britten's mature voice yet? David Layton recalled him saying a few months before that "he had such facility in imitating the other composers that he didn't know which way to turn." Another piece written at the time sounds more "Brittenish" to me.
It's significant that Britten dedicated his 'coming out' piece to Frank Bridge ("my musical father") rather than any of his RCM teachers, where Schoenberg was viewed with suspicion at best. Though the influence is clear, it "does not detract from what is an assured and personal work" (Paul Kildea).
It was looking far right, but in the end it went green.
I watched it again last year, and the craziness and gaping holes made it a lot of fun.
Oh yes! I saw it in the cinema aged 11 and the John Barry score made a massive impression on me. And wasn't quite old enough to be put off by the daftest parts of the film.
More on this tomorrow. I'm going to chill out for the rest of my weekend.
Benjamin Britten and Frank Bridge playing tennis, c. 1930.
Arnold Schoenberg
"I am getting very fond of Schönberg, especially with study" wrote Britten a few days after hearing the symphony on a radio broadcast. He was encouraged by composer Frank Bridge, who'd taught Britten since 1927. Bridge had introduced the boy composer to Schoenberg, backstage at Queen's Hall.
(BTW There's no Currentzis in the video). The Sinfonietta is scored for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn and string quintet. Its forces and its form call to mind its main model, Schoenberg's Chamber Symphony No. 1, composed a quarter-century earlier and which Britten first encountered in 1930.
