Benjamin Britten

A Simple and effective setting of a poem by Thomas Hardy, mostly in unison with some elementary two-part singing. Ideal for a school choir.

Drafted (as a piano duet) in March 1941 for, but not used at, the first production of Paul Bunyan; it was not re-instated in the revival, for which a new short introduction was composed. The work was...

Variations on a Christmas Carol (God rest ye merry, gentlemen) for orchestra. Composed for the BBC programme with the same title which wasbroadcast on Christmas Day 1947. The programme consisted of li...

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 F...

The story of the American folk hero follows the development of the American continent from virgin forest to civilization. It does so in a deliberately eclectic style. Spoken dialogue is interspersed w...

In this second Parable for church performance, Britten sustains the influence of the Noh tradition in Curlew River, while taking inspiration from the Biblical story Ananias, Azarias and Misael. It tel...

Commissioned by the BBC for broadcast at the opening concert of the Third Programme, the work was described in the Radio Times as Festival Overture . The work lasts 8 minutes.

Written during Britten’s years in the USA (1939-1942) this atmospheric processional languished unperformed in a New York library until its discovery in 1976, the year of the composer’s dea...

Instrumentation: 1(=picc).1.2(I=Ebcl.II=bcl+asax) or 3(I=Ebcl.III=bcl+asax).1 – 0210 – timp – perc(1): susp.cym/BD+cym/tam-t/TD/SD – pno – strings

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 Rusk...

Britten's Irish Reel was composed in 1936 as title music for a documentary film made by Marion Grierson and Evelyn Spice. Around the Village Green was made for the Travel and Industrial Development As...

Britten's setting of Edith Sitwell's poem 'Praise We Great Men', was left unfinished at his death. It was being written for Mstislav Rostrpovich to include in his first season with the National Sympho...

Britten's last opera, Death In Venice , is based on the short story by Thomas Mann. It follows the inner turmoil of the ageing novelist Gustav von Aschenbach, who becomes infatuated by a boy he sees o...

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 fr...

Britten was so remarkably prolific as a young composer that many of the works from his teens were put aside to await revision or completion as he rushed on to the next piece. This was particularly the...

The first broadcast of the incidental music for D. G. Bridson's radio drama, King Arthur was given on 23rd April (St. George's Day) 1937. The first performance of this Suite for Orchestra was given on...

This concert version has been prepared by Donald Mitchell for Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Baritone soloists, 1 or 2 speakers, SATB choir and Orchestra. The text has been compiled by R. Ellis Roberts. Th...

In preparing for publication the 1935 orchestral version of Britten's Te Deum in C, it became clear that there were a number of discrepancies between the manuscript and the original 193 vocal score. S...

Benjamin Britten wrote his 'String Quartet in F' in April 1928, shortly after he began lessons with Frank Bridge. He was fourteen at the time and it is thought that this piece was set as a homework ex...

It is hard to believe that Benjamin Britten was 16 when he wrote the Quartettino, such is the skill and intellectual command. Peter Stadlen, The Daily Telegraph, 25 May 1983

Benjamin Britten's last completed composition, 'Welcome Ode' was originally written for school choir and orchestra. The three movements - Jig, Roundel and Canon, here transcribed for strings, form a S...

The sources for this new edition of Britten's String Quartet No.3 was the original manuscript, a photocopy of the manuscript in progress, Rosamund Strode's fair copy. The Quartet was written for the A...