This is the second compilation to be drawn by EMI from their bumper
‘Britten Collector’s Edition’ issued a few years ago
and
reviewed
then for this site by Rob Barnett. It is very logically presented with
the works for string ensemble (trio, quartet and quintet) given in chronological
order on the first three CDs; the three cello suites on the fourth;
the piano works on the fifth; and miscellaneous chamber works on the
sixth and final disc.
Britten seems to have divided his large output of music into three categories.
Firstly there were the major works to which he assigned opus numbers
(until the closing years of his life) and which he clearly intended
to form part of his musical testament. Then there were smaller occasional
works, to which he did not assign opus numbers but which he published
and clearly considered to be a secondary archive of music. Finally there
was a vast reserve of
juvenilia which he generally did not publish
- with a few exceptions such as the song cycle
Tit for tat -
but which were preserved in the Britten archive at Aldeburgh. After
the death of Peter Pears many of the works in this category were published
posthumously, and this caused adverse comment at the time from some
critics - notably Byron Adams in the September 1993 edition of
Notes
- who regarded the issue of these ‘musical indiscretions’
as ‘problematical’. However, provided that we recognise
that Britten himself chose not to release these works for performance
during his lifetime, they nevertheless have a considerable value in
showing his musical development during his precocious teenage years.
Although the earlier EMI box of orchestral music by and large eschewed
the early scores this compendium includes many of them, rightly so in
the context of such an archival collection. It should however be pointed
out that very nearly half of what we have here falls into the category
of works that Britten himself did not consider worthy of publication
during his lifetime.
This is the case with all the works on the first CD, beginning with
the
Romance for string quartet written when the composer was
just sixteen. It shows Britten at the beginning of his career already
looking to the Continent for compositional models, although at this
stage his viewpoint seems to have extended little beyond Ravel; there’s
an almost literal note-for-note quotation from the latter’s
Introduction
and Allegro at one point. The
Quartettino from a year later
shows a more adventurous spirit with the influence of Frank Bridge apparent
as well as a firm acquaintance with the scores of Alban Berg, with whom
Britten wished to study at one time. The
Elegy for solo viola
and the unnumbered
String Quartet in D show the composer consolidating
his technique, as does the
Phantasy for string quintet. It is
important to remember that all these works were written by the composer
before the age of twenty. No matter: they remain interesting pieces
to hear, and Britten’s mature voice is occasionally in evidence,
even though one can understand why he did not think them worthy of later
publication or performance.
It is not until the beginning of the second CD that we encounter a work
that he did consider worthy, in the shape of the
Phantasy for
oboe and string trio which he published as a successor to his Op.1
Sinfonietta
- included in the first of these EMI boxes. For some reason the CD booklet
does not credit the solo oboist in this work; Archiv Music informs us
that it is Douglas Boyd, whose beautiful playing does not deserve such
anonymity. At the time of their original issue these discs were invaluable
for giving us a complete conspectus of all of Britten’s works
for the medium of string quartet. Since then Naxos have entered the
fray with a cycle from the Maggini Quartet which is even more extensive,
including as they do the string quartet version of the
Simple Symphony.
It must also be said that the Magginis find more passion in their performances
of the three mature quartets than the Endellions do here. Incidentally
one of the themes in the
Three Divertimenti was used again by
Britten in his
Les illuminations, surely an indication that he
did not imagine that the earlier work would ever be resurrected and
performed.
Truls Mørk’s traversal of the three Britten
Cello Suites
comes into direct competition with the recordings by Mstislav Rostropovich,
for whom the works were originally written. Rostropovich inexplicably
never recorded the
Third Suite. The sheer difficulties of playing
this music are incredible, but Mørk never sounds fazed by the
demands for a single second. He also achieves a real sense of involvement
with the music, aided by the beautiful resonance of the church acoustic.
Music for unaccompanied string instruments can often sound somewhat
forbidding, the technical problems obtruding between the performer and
the listener, but there is never a suspicion of this here. This disc
continues to be available separately, and rightly so; even if one is
not tempted by this box as a whole, Mørk’s
Suites
must be among the best of the two dozen recordings currently in the
catalogue.
The disc containing the works for piano and piano duet is particularly
valuable, since many of these pieces have never been recorded elsewhere;
but there is a very large proportion of
juvenilia here - including
three waltzes written by Britten at the age of twelve and entitled in
his own spelling
Three Walztes - although he did revisit and
revise the pieces in 1969. The order of the items on the disc makes
for a satisfying sequence, but it might have been better in an archival
collection such as this to present the works in chronological order
of composition. The rarely heard
Night Piece is a real find,
and makes one regret that Britten in his mature years after the Second
World War never wrote anything else for his own instrument. The booklet
notes tell us nothing about the
Sonatina Romantica but apparently
Britten actually withdrew the score after its completion in 1940. The
first two movements here are the only sections published after his death
by the Britten Estate. In context this is perhaps more controversial
- not an early piece that Britten did not consider worthy of performance,
but a mature piece that he positively decided should
not be performed.
However, given the two movements here one is at a loss to understand
why. Perhaps there was something wrong with the rest of the work which
Britten found unsatisfactory? The only pieces on this disc which are
at all well known are the
Mazurka elegiaca and
Introduction
and Rondo alla burlesca, for some obscure reason presented here
in the reverse of the usual and numbered order. These two pieces have
been recorded a number of times since Britten himself played them with
Clifford Curzon in 1944; Hough and O’Hara do them proud, as one
would expect, although one is surprised to note that the barn-storming
reading by John Ogdon and Brenda Lucas which I recall from the 1970s
seems to be missing from the current catalogue. It did appear as part
of Ogdon’s 70
th Anniversary Edition, but has now vanished
again.
The final disc combines four pieces from Britten’s primary catalogue
which do not fit into the categories of the previous discs. The early
Suite for violin and piano is quite a rarity and there are only
a couple of rival recordings in the catalogue; Barantschik and Adey
play it with ease and indeed elegance particularly in the charming
Lullaby.
That said, this work by the teenage Britten is interesting in parts
rather than as a whole. The
Cello Sonata on the other hand is
a towering masterpiece, but unfortunately any recording of the work
must fall under the shadow of the equally towering performance by Rostropovich
with Britten himself at the piano. After that anything else must inevitably
be somewhat of a let-down, but Moray Welsh and John Lenehan do well
and certainly need not fear any but the most exalted comparisons. The
Six Metamorphoses are charmingly piquant pieces, but the
Nocturnal
is a superb work written for Julian Bream and played by him here with
all the fervour of creation. Did it really take seven days to record
this performance, or are the recording dates given those for sessions
covering a whole recital? It hardly matters in the face of involvement
such as this, which brings the whole collection to a supremely satisfying
conclusion.
There are a few works missing from this box - quite apart from miscellaneous
juvenilia which continue to emerge from Britten’s bottom
drawer at regular intervals. The
Suite for harp is missing, as
is the organ
Prelude and Fugue on a theme of Vittoria; and so
are the
Temporal Variations for oboe and piano. All right, the
latter work is one of the posthumous publications which required editing
by Colin Matthews to put it into a performable condition; but it is
a good piece, and has established itself in the recorded repertory with
nearly a dozen recordings currently available. Britten however did regard
his sole organ piece as worthy of publication during his lifetime; and
even more serious is the omission of the
Suite for harp which
Britten wrote for Osian Ellis and which he clearly regarded as a major
work since he designated it his Op.83. Its absence from this more than
generous collection is much to be regretted.
Nevertheless this is a valuable box, containing as it does a number
of items not available elsewhere. Britten’s massive achievements
in the field of opera, vocal and orchestral music have tended to overshadow
his chamber music, but there are some real masterpieces amongst the
works here.
Paul Corfield Godfrey
Briten discography and review index
Track-Listing
CDs 1-3 [60.51 + 53.32 + 55.20]
Rhapsody for string quartet (1929) [7.06]
Quartettino (1930) [15.30]
Elegy for solo viola (1930) [7.25]
String Quartet in D (1931) [19.47]
Phantasy in F minor for string quintet (1932) [10.59]*
Phantasy for oboe and string trio, Op.2 (1932) [13.17]**
Three Divertimenti for string quartet (1936) [9.51]
Alla marcia for string quartet (1936) [3.23]
String Quartet No. 1 in D, Op.25 (1941) [26.57]
String Quartet No. 2 in C, Op.36 (1945) [29.27]
String Quartet No. 3, Op.94 (1975) [23.11]
Endellion String Quartet
with *Nicholas Logie (viola), Douglas
Boyd (oboe)**
rec. Rosslyn Unitarian Chapel, Hampstead and St Michael’s, Highgate,
London, 26-28 January, 17-19 March and 5-7 May 1986
CD 4 [73.05]
Cello Suite No. 1 in G, Op.72 (1964) [25.21]
Cello Suite No. 2 in D, Op.80 (1967) [23.53]
Cello Suite No. 3, Op.87 (1971) [23.28]
Truls Mørk (cello)
rec. Ris Church, Oslo, 11-16 October 1998 and 6 June 2000
CD 5 [79.54]
Holiday Diary, Op.5 [16.59]
Three character pieces (1930) [7.04]
Night piece (
Notturno) (1963) [5.22]
Two movements from
Sonatina romantica (1940) [7.31]
Twelve Variations on a theme (1931) [8.40]
Five Waltzes (1925) [10.55]
Two Lullabies (1936) [5.41]*
Mazurka elegiaca, Op.23/2 (1941) [8.21]*
Introduction and Rondo alla burlesca, Op.23/1 (1940) [9.05]*
Stephen Hough
with *Ronan O’Hara (pianos)
rec. Studio 7, BBC Manchester, June 1990
CD 6 [71.11]
Suite for violin and piano, Op.6 (1935) [15.56]
Alexander Barantschik (violin), John Adey (piano)
rec. Conway Hall, London, 14 March 1994
Cello Sonata in C, Op.65 (1961) [22.13]
Moray Welsh (cello), John Lenehan (piano)
rec. Conway Hall, London, 1 March 1994
Six Metamorphoses after Ovid, Op.49 (1951) [14.14]
Roy Carter (oboe)
rec. All Saints’ Church, East Finchley, London, 4-5 May 1995
Nocturnal after John Dowland, Op.70 (1963) [18.31]
Julian Bream (guitar)
rec. Forde Abbey, Dorset, 14-19 September and 5-6 October 1992
