Benjamin Britten

Par BRITTEN BENJAMIN. Benjamin Britten's 1937 composition, The Company Of Heaven is a dramatic work of considerable substance, from which individual movements may be performed separately as anthems or concert works. The work sets a variety of texts from authors as varied as John Ruskin, Francis Thompson, Christina Rossetti, Blake and Bunyan./ Répertoire / Conducteur

Par BRITTEN BENJAMIN. Britten began composing his Quatre chansons francaises in June 1928 and had finished the full score by August of that year, before his 15th birthday. The songs reflect the impact of his lessons with Frank Bridge, which had begun in the autumn of 1927, and he dedicated the work, which was among the most ambitious of his compositions at this time, to his parents, on the occasion of their 27th wedding anniversary. There was no performance of the songs until 1980./ Répertoire / Conducteur

The cantata of St. Nicholas Op.42 by Benjamin Britten was written for the centenary celebrations of Lancing College Sussex in 1948.This Hawkes Pocket Score is an authoritative edition ideal for performance preparation or academic study.

Love from a Stranger was a 'thriller' starring Ann Harding and Basil Rathbone based on an Agatha Christie short story Philomel Cottage. As well as Britten's score the film also included excerpts from Grieg'sPeer Gynt music and a contemporary dance band. Not all of the present score was used - No. 3 Brighton was omitted and cuts were made in nos. 5 and 6. In the latter a savage cut deleted the references to themusic of the other numbers in bars 13-20 including the trombone's scale which alludes to a scene in which a child practices the piano unseen. Britten was not happy with the way his music was used and this was to remain hisonly work for the commercial cinema composed in 1936.

Purcell Variations-Concerto In Pieces was commissioned by the BBC as a celebration of two major events in British history of music: the 1995 tercentenary of the death of Henry Purcell and the 50th anniversary of Benjamin Britten's Young Persons' Guide to the Orchestra in 1996. Concerto in Pieces may be performed without the commentaries as an uninterrupted set of variations. Work for Orchestra dating from 1994.