Biography of Benjamin Britten
December 4, 1976
Edward Benjamin Britten was born on 22 November 1913 in Lowestoft, Suffolk, the son of a dentist music fan (and some talent in the Arts). As a child, Benjamin began to compose with a certain constancy: after studying at Gresham's School, in 1927 takes private lessons by Frank Bridge. Enrolled at the Royal College of Music with John Ireland (though with little enthusiasm), draws attention to twenty-one years when he writes for the BBC Singers choral variation "A boy was born". It's the 1934: the following year meets Wystan Hugh Auden, with whom he works to complete several works, including the song cycle Our hunting fathers ": between the two, however, the tune is not limited to artistic vision, but also to the radical nature of political vision. At that time the most important current attempts to break away from Britten's music scene in his country, which considers amateurish and compliant, but faces criticism at the time, who does not consider favorably its cosmopolitanism, nor his admiration for the likes of Stravinsky, Berg or Mahler.
In 1936 Benjamin Britten writes music for "Night mail", documentary film with commentary by Auden, and met the tenor Peter Pears, with whom he began working diligently and that also becomes a life partner. The pair follows Auden in the United States in the late 1930s: the Americas, Benjamin composed the first of his many songs for Pears, and his first opera with a libretto by Auden. At that time also takes care of many orchestral works, including the "Sinfonia da Requiem" and several concertos for violin and piano.
In 1942 his "Diversions on a Theme" (op. 21 for piano left hand) is performed for the first time under the baton of Eugene Ormandy in Symphony Hall of the American Academy of Music in Philadelphia. In the same year, Benjamin Britten back with Pears in England: during the sea voyage concludes "A ceremony of carols" and "hymn to St. Cecilia" (choral work that represents his last collaboration with Auden). Then, continues the processing of "Peter Grimes": the first is staged at Sadler's Wells in 1945 and is an outstanding achievement. A year later composed one of his most famous works, entitled "The young person's guide to the orchestra", created to accompany the educational film "Instruments of the orchestra" wanted and produced by the British Government. The work uses as its central theme the melody taken from "Purcell's tragedy Abdelazar" (and in fact is subtitled "Variations and fugue on a theme of Purcell") and offers individual variations for all instruments of the orchestra, starting from wood and continuing with the strings, brass and percussion.
In the film there is also a spoken commentary, normally discarded in recordings and in concerts. While in September 1946 at Glyndebourne directs "The rape of Lucretia" with Pears and Kathleen Ferrier, Britten makes meeting the increasing hostility that meets in certain environments of English music, which is why he decides to retire from the scene in London. Fonda, then, the English Opera Group and the Aldeburgh Festival between 1947 and 1948, even to stage his works.
After directing, at Glyndebourne, the first performance of "Albert Herring" with the English Opera Group, in 1949 he sees his composition "Spring Symphony" op. 44 in 4 parts for soprano, Alto, tenor, chorus, children's Chorus and orchestra premiered at Tanglewood, the Berkshire Music Center, and in Lenox, Massachusetts, under the direction of Serge Koussevitzky. In 1950 his composition "Lachymae, Reflections on a song of John Dowland" is performed for the first time at the Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh. The following year composed "Billy Budd", inspired by the short story written by Herman Melville, while the 1953 dates "Gloriana", written for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. The following year, Benjamin Britten directs the turn of the screw (opera) "(" The turn of the screw ", inspired by the story of Henry James) in Venice, in the world premiere at the Teatro La Fenice. In the late 1950s, Benjamin-together with fellow-travels in the Orient, which is reflected in his later compositions. In particular, Japanese and Indonesian music task remains: an interest that is reflected in "The prince of The pagodas," but also "Curlew River, The burning fiery furnace and The prodigal son," "Parables for Church Performance".
In 1958 Britten attends the premiere of his "Songs from the Chinese" at Great Glemham House; in the years following antiphonal and polytonal performs a short piece for three trumpets, "Fanfare for St Edmundsbury," and especially "a Midsummer night's dream" ("A midsummer night's dream"), inspired by the homonymous work of Shakespeare. The most important achievement in the career of Benjamin Britten was staged a few years later: in 1962 writes the "War Requiem", composed for the reopening of Coventry Cathedral, which is performed by the London Symphony Orchestra with Pears, Dietriche Fischer-Dieskau and Galina Visnevskaja as soloists. The following year, the opera is engraved with Decca Records: during the same period, Britten directs in Edinburgh the English Opera Group in "the beggar's opera", with Pears, Janet Baker, Heather Harper. In the 1970s, the British composer must deal with increasingly significant health problems that make his work more fleeting and sporadic: the 1973 was the opera "Death in Venice" (inspired by the famous opera by Thomas Mann), while two years later is the "Suite on English Folk Tunes ' A time there was '". In 1976 he was appointed Baron of Aldeburgh: that year, having written for Janet Baker the dramatic cantata "Phaedra," Benjamin Britten died on 4 December due to a heart attack.
Article contributed by the team of collaborators.