Britten: The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, Suite on English Folk Tunes, Johnson Over Jordan, Four Sea Interludes
Sheet Music

SKU: NX.CHAN-9221

By Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Richard Hickox. By Benjamin Britten. Classical. CD. Chandos #CHAN 9221. Published by Chandos (NX.CHAN-9221).

UPC: 9.51E+10.

The works on this recording vividly demonstrate the variety of Britten's genius, showing him a master of both the orchestra and theatre, as well as reflecting his lifelong belief that it was the duty of the composer to be useful, whether it be providing music for a play, as in Johnson Over Jordan, or writing a piece with young people in mind as in The Young Person's guide to the Orchestra. J.B. Priestley's Johnson Over Jordan, staged in 1939 with Ralph Richardson in the leading role, was an ambitious experiemental play in which music, mime and dance were integral to the drama. Priestley gave detailed instructions about the music he required and Britten produced an extensive score, from which Paul Hindemarsh selected four sectiosn to produce this suite which was first performed in 1990. The premiere of the opera Peter Grimes in 1945 was a landmark both in Britten's career and in 20th century British music it revealed an outstanding operatic talent and marked the founding of a national operatic tradition which would continue with Britten's other operas. That The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra was originally written for a film, Instruments of the Orchestra, first screened in 1946, demonstrates yet another aspect of Britten's adept skill in working in a variety of mediums. The Suite on English Folk Tunes, Britten's last orchestral work, was completed in 1974 and premiered at the 1975 Aldeburgh Festival, 18 months before his death. It is a masterwork with scoring that is lean and spare, but devastating in effect and so characteristic of the composer's later works.