Benjamin Britten

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...

These part-songs were the first of Britten's works to be published. In 1932 Britten showed the pieces to John Ireland during discussions about proofs and possible transpositions. First called Three S...

The Ride-By-Nights by Benjamin Britten for 2-part boys' or women's voices and Piano. From Three Two-part Songs.

Originally composed to introduce the various instruments of the orchestra, Britten's A Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra follows a set of variations based on a melody by Henry Purcell. In this set...

Paul Bunyan is an American synthetic folklore figure whose 'legend' was actually created as an early advertising campaign on behalf of the lumber industry. This overture was actaully dropped from the...

Duration: 8 Minutes.

Britten wrote Irish Reel in 1936 as the title music for a documentary film entitled 'Around the Village Green'. It is a bravura piece, exhibiting all the energy and strong colours typical of the compo...

Britten wrote Irish Reel in 1936 as the title music for a documentary film entitled 'Around the Village Green'. It is a bravura piece, exhibiting all the energy and strong orchestral colours typical o...

With the "Suite on English Folk Tunes, Op. 90", Benjamin Britten created a deeply moving and richly colored late masterpiece. Bearing the poetic subtitle "A time there was...", the composition weaves...

These early songs were written during the composer's schooldays, whilst he was studying with Frank Bridge. But even at this tender age, Britten already had such accomplished works as Quatre Chansons F...

The first performance of the Songs and Proverbs of William Blake Op.74 was given by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Benjamin Britten at the Aldeburgh Festival on 24 June, 1965. Available here is Britten'...

Poems by Pushkin, with English & German translations

Five settings of poems by Walter De La Mere arranged for Medium Voice and Piano Accompaniment. These settings were written by Benjamin Britten in his childhood, and were collected together in honor of...

Music of profound beauty from one of the greatest vocal music composers of the past 100 years, set to text by T.S. Eliot. This is one of Britten's five canticles and was first performed at The Malting...

Instrumentation: Gustav von Aschenbach(T),the traveller/multiple role(B-Bar),the voice of Apollo(counter-tenor) 2(=picc).2.2(II=bcl).2 - 2221 - timp - perc(5): 2 SD/2 TD/2 BD/tuned drum/3 tom-t/3 ch.d...

These songs were written at the special wish of Her Majesty the Queen for her mother's seventy-fifth birthday, August 4th 1975. Its first public performance was given on the 9th January 1976, at Schlo...

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...

These four songs are taken from A Birthday Hansel Op.92 which was written at the special wish of Her Majesty The Queen for her mother's seventy-fifth birthday, 4th August 1975. All of the songs are wo...

A terrific collection that brings together nine of Britten's previously unpublished songs, written over a period of 25 years from 1935 onwards. Many were originally intended to be part of song-cyles b...

A terrific collection that brings together nine of Britten's previously unpublished songs, written over a period of 25 years from 1935 onwards. Many were originally intended to be part of song-cyles b...