Britten Orchestral works

View record and artist details

Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: Benjamin Britten

Label: Decca/Ovation

Magazine Review Date: 1/1987

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 61

Catalogue Number: 417 509-2DH

Tracks:

Composition	Artist Credit
(The) Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra	Benjamin Britten, Composer Benjamin Britten, Composer Benjamin Britten, Conductor London Symphony Orchestra
Simple Symphony	Benjamin Britten, Composer Benjamin Britten, Composer Benjamin Britten, Conductor English Chamber Orchestra
Variations on a theme of Frank Bridge	Benjamin Britten, Composer Benjamin Britten, Composer Benjamin Britten, Conductor English Chamber Orchestra

Composer or Director: Benjamin Britten

Label: Decca/Ovation

Magazine Review Date: 1/1987

Media Format: Cassette

Media Runtime: 0

Catalogue Number: 417 509-4DB

Tracks:

Composition	Artist Credit
(The) Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra	Benjamin Britten, Composer Benjamin Britten, Conductor Benjamin Britten, Composer London Symphony Orchestra
Simple Symphony	Benjamin Britten, Composer Benjamin Britten, Conductor Benjamin Britten, Composer English Chamber Orchestra
Variations on a theme of Frank Bridge	Benjamin Britten, Composer Benjamin Britten, Conductor Benjamin Britten, Composer English Chamber Orchestra

Composer or Director: Benjamin Britten

Label: Decca/Ovation

Magazine Review Date: 1/1987

Media Format: Vinyl

Media Runtime: 0

Catalogue Number: 417 509-1DB

Tracks:

Composition	Artist Credit
(The) Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra	Benjamin Britten, Composer Benjamin Britten, Conductor Benjamin Britten, Composer London Symphony Orchestra
Simple Symphony	Benjamin Britten, Composer Benjamin Britten, Conductor Benjamin Britten, Composer English Chamber Orchestra
Variations on a theme of Frank Bridge	Benjamin Britten, Composer Benjamin Britten, Composer Benjamin Britten, Conductor English Chamber Orchestra

Author: Edward Greenfield

Like the similarly generous CD coupling of Britten's own recordings of his three song-cycles with orchestra, the Serenade, the Nocturne and Les illuminations (417 153-2DH, 7/86) this compilation brings together three unique performances to be cherished not just by Britten devotees but by the widest possible range of music-lovers. This is Britten at his most immediately appealing, though his brisk account of the most popular piece of all, the Young Person's Guide, may startle some by its fierceness in relation to almost any other reading on record. That fierceness is underlined by the CD transfer which emphasizes the top response and the lack of roundness in the Kingsway Hall recording, which I confess I had not registered on the original LP, a coupling for Britten's last recording of the Serenade.
I rather wish that oldest and least sweet of the recordings had been put at the end, for the string sound of the English Chamber Orchestra in the other two works is superb, fuller and richer with a good, firm bass response set against a warm and helpful ambience. The Variations were in fact recorded at Kingsway, the same hall as was used for the Young Person's Guide, while the Simple Symphony, done a couple of years later, was able to use the newly converted Maltings at Snape. Bands are provided for all the separate variations of the Frank Bridge set, but not for those of the Young Person's Guide, which is a pity but that is a minor irritation in relation to the delight of having such classic, unique performances on Compact Disc.'