[f_minor] nothing, really,

[michael macelletti]

actually that is a marvelous performance.  there are excerpts of it on the bruno monsaingeon documentary :  richter, the enigma.   alas, it's out of print i think. but i was able to get it on inter-library loan and made a copy.  britten looks very amused  at richter several times. it was a totally spontaneous bit of joyful music making. and you're right,  britten was an amazing pianist ! 


________________________________
 From: maryellen jensen <maryellenjensen28 at hotmail.com>
To: "f_minor at glenngould.org" <f_minor at glenngould.org> 
Sent: Thursday, November 21, 2013 7:43 PM
Subject: Re: [f_minor] nothing, really,
 


 

What a brave fellow you are to break the long silence Michael.

Question: Who is listening to what lately?

Answer from me: it's Benjamin Britten Centennial  all over Radio France Musique, BBC4 t.v and BBC Radio 3 and I'm having a great time. Britten was a brilliant pianist as well as a brilliant composer. Unfortunately I cannot find a youtube link to the Britten/Richter live t.v. performance of Mozart for two pianos but I'll pass these along:

"The Simple Symphony, Op. 4, is a work for string orchestra or string quartet by Benjamin Britten. It was written between December 1933 and February 1934 in Lowestoft, using bits of score that the composer had written for the piano as a 
young teenager, between 1923 and 1926. It was composed for string 
orchestra and received its first performance in 1934 at Stuart Hall in Norwich,with Britten conducting an amateur orchestra.
The piece is dedicated to Audrey Alston (Mrs Lincolne Sutton), 
Britten's viola teacher during his childhood. The piece is based on 
eight themes which Britten wrote during his childhood (two per movement) and for which he had a particular fondness. He completed his final 
draft of this piece at age twenty."   - Perhaps it's a "cold grey North" thing but I love Britten.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwSwopSro0k


and what Arvo Part wrote of Britten:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82-xbhfNR2g


and a documentary ("Benjamin Britten on Camera" has not yet been posted alas):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHxMzDMSLwg


Radio France Musique: 

http://www.francemusique.fr/opera/benjamin-britten-cet-inconnu-10834

...further on RFM just search this week's calendar for their great "English Music" programmes all this past week. RFM truly made an effort.


Of course it's not all as grim as one might surmise from these links. Dudley Moore did a great "take-off" of Britten-Pears which was a huge success, apparently more for Pears (who laughed) than for Britten (who wasn't much amused). 

Here's to old England...
Mary



________________________________
Date: Tue, 19 Nov 2013 16:04:12 -0800
From: mmacelletti at sbcglobal.net
To: f_minor at glenngould.org; gmadoodat at hotmail.com
Subject: [f_minor] nothing, really,


just two cd's you might want to have ,  considering............. everything.  

glenn gould ... and serenity        sony sk 90538                   and   

mozart  adagios     decca   2 cd   289 460 191-2
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