Tag: Benjamin Britten

It seems numerically appropriate that 22/11/22 should be signifcant, but it would be significant anyway as the 109th anniversary of the birth of Benjamin Britten (and St. Cecilia's Day, patron saint of music). As is customary in these parts, Britten's will be the only music played today.

It is full of wit, orchestral brilliance, profound pain and darkness and unerring insight into the mind of Man. His is not the sweet, pastoral music that comforts without challenge, but it is extremely well-crafted and brings its own rewards in good time -and I commend it to anyone that wants to listen to some of the best music of the 20th Century.# [...] 

Today would have been Benjamin Britten's 107th birthday.

His music was the first 'serious' music I ever encountered, thanks to Mr. Harold Vafeas and the Senior School Choir he directed that sang "proper" music like Vivaldi, Orff ...and Britten. I hated the music Harold made us sing of Britten's. Absolutely hated it! It was difficult, complex and... "modern", at least to my ears. But if you practice a single piece for a term or more at a time, as we did, it gets under your skin, and by the time we came to give a public performance of Rejoice in the Lamb, I adored the piece. [...]