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Britten – Works for String Orchestra

Composers
Performers
Orchestras / Ensembles
Periods
Conductors
Label
Catalogue numberBIS-2060 SACD
Release date2013-10-10
Discs1
Orig. sample rate44100Hz/96000Hz
Total time81:04

Ugens CD, uge 47, Dr.dk
4 étoiles, Classica

“Brilliant, and urgently recommended.” Fanfare; “… you won’t have better performances, nor will you experience them in more vivid, vibrant, life-like sound. A careful listen to this generous 81-minute program yields an easy recommendation and ensures this disc a place among the Britten year’s outstanding releases.” ClassicsToday.com

‘Composing is like driving down a foggy road toward a house’, Benjamin Britten once said: ‘Slowly you see more details of the house – the colour of the slates and bricks, the shape of the windows.’ The comparison is interesting, not least because certain defining qualities of Britten’s music – brilliance and wit, clarity and luminosity – might easily be taken to be the results of a more direct and intuitive creational process. It is also slightly surprising, coming from a composer who had been strikingly precocious in his youth – the apparent ease with which Britten as a young boy wrote a large amount of music brings Mendelssohn or Mozart to mind. This collection of works for string orchestra combines two of Britten’s first master-pieces, Simple Symphony and the Frank Bridge Variations, with the even earlier Elegy for Strings – recorded here for the first time – and Two Portraits, composed between the ages of 14-16. The second of the Portraits is actually a self-portrait, with a solo part for the viola – Britten’s own instrument – here performed by Catherine Bullock, who is also the soloist in the composer’s Lachrymae. Subtitled ‘reflections on a song of John Dowland’, this piece is a later one, originally composed for viola and piano in 1950, but Britten returned to it shortly before his death in 1976, recasting it for solo viola and small string orchestra. Directed by the Norwegian violinist Terje Tønnesen, the Swedish string ensemble Camerata Nordica performs this programme with an engaging directness and striking virtuosity – qualities which no doubt contributed to the team being entrusted by the Britten-Pears Foundation with making the world première recording of the Elegy, as well as giving its first public performance during the 2013 BBC Proms.
 
  • STUDIO QUALITY
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  • CD QUALITY | MP3
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$ 17.27
 
Extra material for download
 
 
  Composer: Britten, Benjamin
  Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge for string orchestra, Op.10 (1937) 26:15
01 1. Introduction and Theme 01:59 $ 0.44 USD
02 2. Adagio 02:21 $ 0.52 USD
03 3. March 01:02 $ 0.23 USD
04 4. Romance 01:24 $ 0.31 USD
05 5. Aria Italiana 01:22 $ 0.30 USD
06 6. Bourrée Classique 01:12 $ 0.26 USD
07 7. Wiener Walzer 02:52 $ 0.63 USD
08 8. Moto Perpetuo 01:05 $ 0.24 USD
09 9. Funeral March 04:01 $ 0.88 USD
10 10. Chant 01:38 $ 0.36 USD
11 11. Fugue and Finale 07:19 $ 1.61 USD
 
 
  Composer: Britten, Benjamin
  Simple Symphony, Op.4 (1933–34) 17:01
12 1. Boisterous Bourrée 02:45 $ 0.61 USD
13 2. Playful Pizzicato 03:30 $ 0.77 USD
14 3. Sentimental Saraband 07:53 $ 1.73 USD
15 4. Frolicsome Finale 02:53 $ 0.63 USD
 
16 Lachrymae, Op.48a (1950, arr. 1976) 14:03 $ 3.09 USD
 
  Composer: Britten, Benjamin
  Two Portraits for string orchestra (1930) 13:27
17 1. D. Layton: Poco presto 07:53 $ 1.73 USD
18 2. E.B.B.: Poco lento 05:34 $ 1.22 USD
 
19 Elegy for Strings (1928) 07:44 $ 1.70 USD
  Album total 81:04
ComposerBritten, Benjamin
ConductorTonnesen (Tønnesen), Terje
StringsCamerata Nordica
ViolaBullock, Catherine

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