The Classical Music Guide Forums

It does indeed seem unbelievable that "honour killings" exist anywhere, but they aren't legal in Britain, any more than any other murder is, so it has little to do with the argument.

Forgive me for joining in where I'm sure I'm not wanted, but it seems unbelievable to me that any country that dares to call itself civilised should have the death penalty. In Britain in the 1950s when I was a teenager, I used to hear about the latest execution with disbelief, and say, "One day we w...

[quote="KenazFilan"] (What I wouldn't give for a film of Pears singing the Madwoman in [i]Curlew River[/i]...)[/quote] Just noticed this bit. Have you seen the DVD "Benjamin Britten: A Time There Was"?, Tony Palmer's film from 1979 (I think)? There's a bit of Pears in Curlew River in that. Very styl...

The 1969 BBC television performance of Peter Grimes with Peter Pears (in colour, by the way) was available on DVD for a while, but I don't think it's still around - it turns up on eBay from time to time, and there's a clip on Youtube. It's the real thing, conducted by Britten, straightforward produc...

Benjamin Britten would have been 93 today - he could easily have still been alive, but has been dead for 30 years on December 4th. I wonder what he'd have composed had he lived?

Certainly it's rare among people in general, but is it rare among composers, who are the people I was talking about? The names of Mozart (obviously), Saint-Saens, Mendelssohn, Britten come to mind at once, and I'm quite sure many others were similar - not to mention, of course, many who were eventua...

I don't know anything about this boy, but it's not all that unusual, is it? Very many famous composers had plenty of compositions to their name by the age of 14, even if they weren't actually played at that age.

[quote="davidreece"]I think Britten's music is genius. I've performed many of his works, but the closest to my heart is the cantata 'St. Nicolas' which I think is an overlooked masterpiece. There are two excellent recordings and one of historic note. The original Decca release is interesting to hear...

A quibble maybe - but he was never Sir Benjamin. He refused a knighthood. Six months before his death he was made a Life Peer, and so was officially Lord Britten, though it is said he only accepted this because his beloved nurse said she would never speak to him again if he didn't!

As well as the operas, all the song cycles are great works - not only the Serenade. Try the Michelangelo Sonnets, John Donne Sonnets, Les Illuminations, Nocturne, Winter Words, On this Island. It does help if you like and understand poetry, and for Michelangelo and Illuminations Italian and French p...

Very interesting. I must say I've been surprised by the Rattle-bashing. I haven't been to many Rattle concerts, and none in Berlin, but the ones I have been to have been very, very memorable for the sheer vivacity and LIFE he brought to the music - and, one must add, to the players. I have never see...

Jacqueline du Pre always seemed to me to be a one-off true genius, in a quite different class from any other player. The analogy made earlier with Callas is apt - not always perfect, but finding some musical truth denied to others.

I was probably a little hasty! Classic FM does drive me mad, though I was grateful for it at the dentist this morning when the alternative might have been something far worse! I hate the sloppy presenting style, and the commercials, but what I dislike most is the unadventurousness - nothing challeng...

Who can do without it? I agree with every word.

I didn't realise that the British (of whom I'm one) were "squeamish" about Britten. I've always had the impression that he was regarded by many as our greatest composer, and his love of children has had some very remarkable musical results. Funny how times change - in his lifetime it was his lifelon...

I find some Walton a bit shallow. I've sung in Belshazzar's Feast many times, and at first it seems exciting, but after repeated exposure you realise it's somewhat hollow excitement, based largely on making a lot of noise. It doesn't have a lot of meaning under all that bluster. More in common with ...

[quote="jbuck919"] Sometimes the transformation works. The boy who sang the premiere of Amahl and the Night Visitors went on to become a very fine baritone (I cannot remember his name, but heard him sing as an adult in a radio performance). [/quote] Yes - Many (I might even say most) well known Engl...

On the video there are messages with comments, and now there's one from someone who obviously knows what he's talking about. He (or she, I suppose) says the boy is called Robin Schlotz, and it was recorded at a concert for parents given last July by the Tolz Boys' Choir. I looked around the net a bi...

Ah. one of the messages/comments with the video points out that he is wearing the logo of the Toelzer Knabenchor (famous German boys' choir), so I was right.

Not exactly in tune, but pretty amazing, though I would rather a boy of obvious talent wasn't put through performing-monkey tricks like this. Does anyone know who he is? Is he perhaps German or Austrian? (The clothes look a bit like the sort worn by German boys' choirs, and there is obviously a choi...

Looks as if I don't understand how to do quotes!. Sorry.

[quote="jbuck919"][quote="Cyril Ignatius"] 5) A couple of Vienna Boys Choir CDs (both on Philips) are among my very favorites. "Christmas Angels" has many standard carols along with Britten's Ceremony of the Carols. "Christmas in Vienna" has a variety of carols, and good number of these tracks featu...

Britten's Ceremony of Carols for me too, but it must be sung by boy trebles with harp (even though I wouldn't have wanted to miss the experience of singing in it myself).

Britten did occasionally accompany singers other than Pears, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau in Schubert and the song cycle BB wrote for him"Songs and Proverbs of Wiiliam Blake", and also Kathleen Ferrier and Janet Baker, but not often. He also played in chamber concerts sometimes. But you are right, almos...

I agree with Karlhenning's use of the words "self-indulgent", though perhaps I would use "self-centred", and I don't think it applies only to his dreadful librettos. It was central to his character, I suspect - it is exactly the quality that comes across in his autobiography. He could have done with...

I think her voice is quite sweet, and would be all right in a choir - otherwise, no. Real singers don't need microphones, and a bit of good taste and humility doesn't harm, either. I have been in a concert with Ms Brightman, and we, the humble choir members, were instructed by her and her entourage ...

My grandmother had a Pianola, and shelves and shelves of piano rolls. (They took up a lot of room.) As a small child I used to love "playing" the Pianola, pretending to be Rachmaninov or whoever. But best of all was to stop "playing", and watch the piano keys move all by themselves! I was too young ...

I agree with Michael that there isn't a really good concert hall in London - apart, as he says, from the Wigmore for chamber music and lieder. One is certainly needed. There are, however, superb halls elsewhere in Britain - the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester, Snape Maltings in Suffolk, Symphony Hall...

The difficulty with these wonderful poems, if you don't speak French, is that they are just about impossible to translate, since they are sound-pictures and the sound of the language is essential to them. Wonderful, wonderful stuff. Anyone who doesn't know the Britten song cycle should try it - it m...

I think that there are groups who re-enact battles in England, too, though I have never come across them. I see it as a very immature, naive occupation for people without imagination. Ralph, I do have heroes - but not people whose primary purpose is killing, whether directly or indirectly. There wer...

I'm English, and I find it interesting to read your comments. The commemorations offend me. However much people say it isn't a celebration of "victory", that is exactly what it is. The whole atmosphere is festive, carnival-like. For goodness' sake, this was a BATTLE. Thousands of people on both side...

That's interesting - I didn't know he'd been in the Highgate choir. What an experience! On the latest re-issue of the War Requiem, there are extracts from rehearsals, with Britten talkng to the performers. To the boys he says, "Don't make it sound NICE. It isn't nice, it's horrid. It's MODERN music!...

Britten's Spring Symphony certainly isn't suitable! Large orchestra including a cowhorn, vibraphone and two harps, big choir, boys' choir, and three top-notch soloists - there wouldn't be room!


There's a nice Spring Carol in his Ceremony of Carols, though.

I would echo Nigel here - I do think the Met is seen in Europe as being very conservative. I've never been there, though I have heard broadcasts and read reviews - I'm just recording the general impression of opinion I get here in England.