In celebration of the centenary of Benjamin Britten, the Hampsong Foundation presents a new audio documentary SINGING BRITTEN, featuring observations on some of Britten’s songs, choral works and operas from distinguished performers, with musical illustrations. This has been made by Jon Tolansky exclusively for the Singers on Singing audio archive.

Host: Jon Tolansky

For Britten, the human voice was probably the most important and certainly the most personal of all instruments, being the conveyor of words, which for him were, when they were combined with music, the most powerfully expressive of all artistic mediums. In his prolific output of vocal compositions, he set a remarkably wide ranging palette of words extending from medieval times to his own era in the mid 20th Century, and in this documentary some selected songs, choral works and operas are discussed by the following artists:

• Conductor Steuart Bedford
• Tenor James Gilchrist
• Baritone Thomas Hampson
• Pianist and Vocal Accompanist Graham Johnson
• Baritone Simon Keenlyside
• Bass-baritone John Shirley-Quirk
• Bass Sir John Tomlinson
• Tenor Jon Vickers

The musical illustrations are from these works, in the order in which they are heard:

• “O my blacke soul” from The Holy Sonnets of John Donne – Sir Peter Pears accompanied by Benjamin Britten (from Britten: The Complete Works)
• “Prologue” from Our Hunting Fathers – Elisabeth Söderström, Welsh National Opera Orchestra, conductor Sir Richard Armstrong (from Britten: The Complete Works )
• Canticle 1, Op. 40, “My Beloved is Mine” – James Gilchrist accompanied by Anna Tilbrook – (from the album My Beloved is Mine: Song Cycles by Benjamin Britten)
• Canticle 2, Op. 40, “Abraham and Isaac” – John Hahessy and Sir Peter Pears accompanied by Benjamin Britten (from Britten: The Complete Works)
• “The Autumn Wind” from Songs from the Chinese – Sir Peter Pears accompanied by Benjamin Britten (from Britten: The Complete Works)
• Extracts from Peter Grimes – Sir Peter Pears, Owen Brannigan, Orchestra and Chorus of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, conductor Benjamin Britten (from Britten: The Complete Works)
• Extracts from Peter Grimes – Jon Vickers, Orchestra and Chorus of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, conductor Sir Colin Davis (from Peter Grimes)
• Extract from The Rape of Lucretia – Sir Peter Pears, English Chamber Orchestra, conductor Benjamin Britten (from Britten: The Complete Works)
• Extract from Billy Budd – Thomas Hampson, Hallé Orchestra, conductor Kent Nagano (from Billy Budd (Nagano))
• Extract from Billy Budd – Sir John Tomlinson, London Symphony Orchestra, conductor Richard Hickox (from Billy Budd (Hickox))
• Extract from Billy Budd – Peter Glossop, Sir Peter Pears, London Symphony Orchestra, conductor Benjamin Britten (from Britten: The Complete Works)
• Extract from The Turn of the Screw – Jennifer Vyvyan, Joan Cross, David Hemmings, English Opera Group Orchestra, conductor Benjamin Britten (from Britten: The Complete Works)
• Extract from War Requiem – Sir Peter Pears, Galina Vishnevskaya, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Simon Preston, Bach Choir, London Symphony Orchestra Chorus, Highgate School Choir, Melos Ensemble, conductor Benjamin Britten (from Britten: The Complete Works)
• Extract from Curlew River – John Shirley-Quirk, Sir Peter Pears, Harold Blackburn, choral and instrumental group, direction by Benjamin Britten and Viola Tunnard (from Britten: The Complete Works)
• Extract from Owen Wingrave – Benjamin Luxon, John Shirley-Quirk, Sir Peter Pears, Sylvia Fisher, English Chamber Orchestra, conductor Benjamin Britten (from Britten: The Complete Works)
• Extract from Death in Venice – Sir Peter Pears, John Shirley-Quirk, Iris Saunders, Kenneth Bowen, English Chamber Orchestra and chorus, conductor Steuart Bedford (from Britten: The Complete Works)