Letters from a life : the selected letters of Benjamin Britten 1913-1976

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Letters from a life : the selected letters of Benjamin Britten 1913-1976

edited by Philip Reed, Mervyn Cooke and Donald Mitchell ; co-ordinating editor Jill Burrows

Boydell Press in association with The Britten-Pears Foundation, 2008-

  • v. 4
  • v. 5
  • v. 6

Available at  / 6 libraries

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Note

Vol. 4. 1952-1957 -- v. 5. 1958-1965 -- v. 6. 1966-1976

"Previous volumes in this series, published by Faber and Faber Limited" -- [ii] p. <BA18859422>

Includes bibliographical references and indexes

Description and Table of Contents

Volume

v. 4 ISBN 9781843833826

Description

The fourth volume of this acclaimed edition of Britten's letters covers the composition of three key works and the world trip that was to radically inform the composer's style thereafter. One of the most illuminating biographical projects in recent years. PETER ACKROYD The fourth volume of the annotated selected letters of Benjamin Britten covers the years 1952-57, during which he wrote three major worksfor the stage - the Coronation opera Gloriana, the chamber opera The Turn of the Screw, and the full-length ballet The Prince of the Pagodas - as well as important vocal works such as Canticles II and III andthe Hardy song-cycle Winter Words. Correspondents include librettists William Plomer (Gloriana) and Myfanwy Piper (The Turn of the Screw), and friends and collaborators such as Edith Sitwell, E. M. Forster, Basil Coleman, Imogen Holst, Francis Poulenc, Lennox Berkeley, the Earl of Harewood and Britten's partner and principal interpreter, Peter Pears. The volume charts Britten's growing stature as a major figure of the Europeanmusical establishment as composer, conductor and pianist, and his continuing involvement with the Aldeburgh Festival, the English Opera Group, and Covent Garden. Central to the period is the world trip undertaken by Britten and Pears and the first-hand encounter with the music and cultures of Bali and Japan that were radically to inform Britten's compositional techniques from Pagodas onwards. The comprehensive and scholarly annotations vividly evoke a key period in twentieth-century musical and cultural history, and offer a wide range of detailed information fascinating for both the Britten specialist and the general reader. Published in association with The Britten-Pears Foundation.

Table of Contents

Introduction - Philip Reed Fit for a Queen: The Writing of Gloriana January 1952-July 1953 Absolute Singleness, Clearness and Roundness: The Turn of the Screw August 1953-September 1954 On the Threshold of a New Musical World: Towards The Prince of the Pagodas October 1954-October 1955 As Complicated as Schoenberg: Eastern Encounters October 1955-March 1956 Beyond Bali: The Completion of The Prince of the Pagodas March 1956-January 1957 In the Naive Medieval Style: Noye's Fludde January-December 1957 Bibliography Index of Britten's Works Index of Other Composers General Index
Volume

v. 5 ISBN 9781843835912

Description

This fifth volume of Britten's letters covers a period of intense activity in his life and works, culminating in his great pacifist choral masterpiece, War Requiem. The fifth volume of the annotated selected letters of Benjamin Britten - edited by Philip Reed and Mervyn Cooke - covers the years 1958-65, during which he wrote two major operatic works, A Midsummer Night's Dream and the ground-breaking Curlew River, and his pacifist choral masterpiece, War Requiem. Other significant compositions from the period include the orchestral song-cycle Nocturne, the first of the cello pieces for Rostropovich, and settings of poems by Blake and Pushkin. Correspondents include friends, fellow artists and collaborators such as William Plomer (librettist of Curlew River), Edith Sitwell, E. M. Forster, Christopher Isherwood, Robert Graves, the Earl of Harewood, Yehudi Menuhin, Mstislav Rostropovich, Galina Vishnevskaya, Dmitri Shostakovich, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Barbara Hepworth and Duncan Grant, as well as Britten's partner and principal interpreter, Peter Pears. The volume charts the peak of Britten's position as one of the leading figures of the international musical establishment as composer, conductor and pianist, and his continuing involvement with the Aldeburgh Festival and the English Opera Group. The deterioration in Britten's relationship with Boosey & Hawkes, his publishers since the mid-1930s, is closely documented, as is the founding, at the composer's instigation, of the new publishing house of Faber Music in 1964. Central to the period is the composer's warm friendship with musicians from the Soviet Union, and Britten and Pears's visits to Moscow, Leningrad and Armenia are charted in detail. Published in association with The Britten-Pears Foundation.
Volume

v. 6 ISBN 9781843837251

Description

The composer's final decade sees a new outpouring of creativity. The sixth and final volume of the annotated selected letters of Benjamin Britten, edited by Philip Reed and Mervyn Cooke, covers the composer's last decade. The genesis, composition and premieres of major stage works such as Owen Wingrave, commissioned by BBC Television, and Death in Venice are fully documented, as are the church parables, The Burning Fiery Furnace and The Prodigal Son. Important concert works from this period include the powerful Brecht setting, Children's Crusade, the Third Cello Suite (for Rostropovich), Canticles IV and V (both settings of poetry by T. S. Eliot), Phaedra (for Janet Baker) and the Third String Quartet, with its haunting echoes of Death in Venice. As in previous volumes, Britten's letters to his life partner and principal interpreter, the tenor Peter Pears, remain central. Other significant correspondents include theQueen and Queen Mother; librettists William Plomer and Myfanwy Piper; artistic collaborators Frederick Ashton, Colin Graham and John Piper; musicians Janet Baker, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Mstislav Rostropovich; and composers Oliver Knussen, Dmitri Shostakovich and William Walton. The volume also traces the conversion of Snape Maltings into the Aldeburgh Festival's principal concert venue, its destruction by fire on the opening night of the 1969 Festival and its miraculous rebuilding in time for the following year's Festival, as well as major concert tours by Britten and Pears to New York, Canada, South America, Moscow and Leningrad, Australia, and New Zealand. Close attention is paid to Britten's final years, when his failed heart surgery left him a near invalid. Published in association with The Britten-Pears Foundation.

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