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The Red House Aldeburgh
Britten—Pears Foundation | www.brittenpears.org | Summer 2011
relative humidity between the outside environment and the material within. This concept is not only functional, but also helps to accentuate within the design the preciousness of the archive collections.
All images on this page: Stanton Williams Architects.
Landmark Britten Archive for 2013
Britten’s uniquely comprehensive archive will be rehoused to keep it safe for years to come, explains Chris Grogan, Director of Collections and Heritage at The Red House. The future of Britten’s internationally significant archive – in the place where the composer lived and worked – is secure after BPF announced plans for a purpose-built Archive Centre in the grounds of The Red House. Nearly four years in the pipeline, the plans for the new building have been approved and construction work will begin with a formal groundbreaking on 22 November, Britten’s birthday. The Archive Centre will open as part of BPF’s plans to mark Britten’s centenary in 2013 by opening up The Red House site and collections as never before. Architects Stanton Williams have met our brief with a design that will bring together under one roof collections that are currently spread across our site, and keep them safe from fire and flood. The stable conditions needed for long-term preservation will mostly be achieved by low-energy, passive means rather than air-conditioning, making this a landmark sustainable building in the archive world.
The architects, and their engineers, Max Fordham, describe the concept as an ‘egg in a box’: thick, well-insulated walls enclose the main storage room, surrounded by a buffer space which helps moderate the temperature and
by Britten and Originally assembled Pears as a working library of their own collections of books, manuscripts, printed scores and recordings, the archive has now grown into one of the country’s most important centres for music research and scholarship. In 2005 the collection was officially given Designated status in recognition of its quality and significance.
Continues on back page.
Britten—Pears Foundation | www.brittenpears.org
The Red House | Summer 2011
Literary Britten conference A conference this autumn launches an exciting collaboration between BPF and Cambridge University. Dr Kate Kennedy, Research Fellow in English and Music, invites you to join in. Britten is well known for his eclectic and idiosyncratic choice of writers to set, and his word setting is some of the best, arguably, in British music. A detailed focus on his relationship to the written word, is, then, long overdue. This September academics and other interested parties from around the world will gather in the beautiful surroundings of Girton College for a weekend of papers on Britten and writers as diverse as Wilfred Owen, Herman Melville, Thomas Hardy, Henry James, Christopher Smart, WH Auden and William Wordsworth. The aim is to shed light on Britten’s relationship to these texts, often from unexpected and original angles.
powerful narratives, often known as myths, about innocence, scapegoats and sacrifice, myths that Euripides and Ibsen would have readily recognised. The art of tragedy has always been intent on staging an unresolved conflict between such myths and their enactment in drama. Tragedy – the real thing – must always be ‘modern’, and Britten’s great tragic operas are the real thing.’ The conference includes a formal dinner in the College Hall, and plenty of time for discussion away from the official sessions.
Watts writes: ‘The cycle, Seven Songs to Orpheus, brings together reflections on the creative process and on the relationship between music and words by Keats, Blake, Owen, Melville, Shakespeare and Tennyson. It also includes Auden’s portrait of Orpheus, which it is tempting to read as a sketch of his friend and collaborator, Britten. While Britten’s preference in cycles for voice and piano was for an intense exploration of a single poet, my new piece builds on larger scale models such as his Serenade and Nocturne, which elaborate on a single theme from a range of literary perspectives. In bringing this approach to the intimacy of the duo, I aim to dramatise the relationship between singer and pianist – word and music – that formed the core of Britten’s own musical and personal life.’
The conference opens with Professor Adrian Poole, from the English Faculty at Cambridge, on Britten and modern tragedy: ‘There are those ... who have thought that for tragedy after Ibsen words alone can no longer suffice, and that only music can provide the elevation and depth, the metaphysical grandeur and emotional resonance, traditionally associated with the tragedies of Sophocles, Shakespeare and Racine. Through the examples afforded by Peter Grimes, Billy Budd and The Turn of the Screw I shall argue that these works ... reach back through a narrative text to find a drama buried within it and give it new life. This drama draws on particularly Girton College, Cambridge.
Above Britten’s copy of the poems of Wilfred Owen (right), annotated by the composer during the planning of War Requiem. Photo: Nigel Luckhurst.
On the Sunday there is a Britten recital by the tenor Andrew Kennedy, pianist and broadcaster Iain Burnside, and cellist Guy Johnston. The recital will feature the premiere of a song cycle specially commissioned for the occasion from composer Tim Watts, drawing on Britten’s poets for its inspiration.
The hope is that the conference will set in motion a longer term project: a series of books on the texts Britten set, their authors, and the music they inspired. The first volume will be drawn largely from the conference, which marks the start of an exciting interdisciplinary collaboration linking BPF with the Music Faculty at Cambridge. Booking details at www.brittenpears.org The conference is supported by Cambridge’s Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities.
Britten—Pears Foundation | www.brittenpears.org
The Red House | Summer 2011
Repertoire Paul Kildea recommends some Britten literary settings for solo voice and orchestra. You can find more programming ideas in Paul’s new guide for BPF, Britten Connections.
Britten with WH Auden in New York, 1941.
Quatre chansons françaises (1928) 13’ For high voice and orchestra Text: Victor Hugo, Paul Verlaine (in French) Delicate, sometimes ecstatic, songs by a precocious teenager, hued with the sounds of Wagner, the colours of Debussy and the poetic rhetoric of Mahler, but unmistakably the work of Britten. It works especially well when programmed alongside these influential composers. 2.1.3(I=cl in A, III=bass cl).2—4.0.0.0— perc—harp—pft—strings Faber Music
Our Hunting Fathers op. 8 (1936; rev. 1961) 27’ Symphonic cycle for high voice and orchestra Text: Anon, Thomas Ravenscroft, WH Auden Britten’s breakaway orchestral songcycle – ‘my Op. 1 alright’ as he said at the time – is a meditation on human-kind’s relationship with animals, full of ageless political bite, and virtuosic orchestral writing that prefigures the Sinfonia da Requiem. Equally strong when performed by tenor or soprano, the cycle was Britten’s first concert-hall collaboration with Auden, his dramatic, lyrical response to 1930s Continental modernism and politics. Works brilliantly in concert alongside the expressionist scores of Berg and Schoenberg, and the more political symphonies of Shostakovich. 2(II=picc).2(II=ca).1.cl in Eb(=bass cl).alto sax.2—4.2.3.1— timp.perc(2)— harp—strings Boosey & Hawkes
Les Illuminations op. 18 (1939) 21’/30’ For high voice and string orchestra, with 3 extra songs (orch. Colin Matthews): ‘Phrase’, ‘Aube’, ‘À Une Raison’ Text: Arthur Rimbaud (in French) Exquisite miniatures, drawn together as a cycle for soprano or tenor and string orchestra, in which Britten pays tribute once more to the sounds and colours of French music and language. Matthews slipped on Britten’s shoes for his recent orchestration of three poems sketched and then discarded by the composer to produce these standalone orchestral songs. A great alternative or counterpoint to Berlioz’s Les nuits d’été.
Nocturne op. 60 (1958) 25’ For tenor solo, seven obbligato instruments and string orchestra Text: Shelley, Tennyson, Coleridge, Middleton, Wordsworth, Owen, Keats, Shakespeare Britten’s bookend to Serenade, in which the world of sleep, dreams and nightmares is charted with great drama. The cycle’s connection to Mahler is formalized in its dedication to his widow Alma, yet the great composer’s musical footprints are ever discernable. Orchestral musicians love playing this: each obbligato instrument forms a perfect colloquy with the voice. fl, ca, cl, bn, hn, harp, timp—strings Boosey & Hawkes
Boosey & Hawkes
Serenade op. 31 (1943) 24’/27’ For tenor, horn and strings, with one extra song: ‘Now sleeps the crimson petal’ Text: Charles Cotton, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, William Blake, Anon., Ben Jonson, John Keats On home territory after Les Illuminations, Britten’s tribute here is to England’s great poets and pastoral traditions. It is a showpiece equally for tenor and horn, each playing off the other with great wit and beauty. Boosey & Hawkes
‘Night work he mistrusted, but he had considerable faith in the capacity of his subconscious mind to solve problems while he slept – and, perhaps for that reason, his favourite reading before going to sleep was poetry.’ Eric Crozier on Britten.
A Charm of Lullabies op. 41 (1947) 12’ For mezzo-soprano solo and orchestra (arr. Colin Matthews) Text: William Blake, Robert Burns, Robert Greene, Thomas Randolph, John Philip A welcome addition to a relatively small repertory. Colin Matthews has crafted Britten’s five lullabies for mezzosoprano and piano into a unified orchestral cycle. A good alternative to Elgar’s ubiquitous Sea Pictures. 2.2.2(II=bass cl).2—2.0.0.0— harp—strings Boosey & Hawkes
Britten Connections and Britten Opera guide Promotional copies of these guides are free to relevant music organisations and individual performers. To order, contact Kevin Gosling: k.gosling@brittenpears.org
Britten—Pears Foundation | www.brittenpears.org
The Red House | Summer 2011
Britten in performance The first half of the 2011–12 season includes a new production of The Burning Fiery Furnace, one of the Church Parables that is less frequently staged, along with three core works of the twentieth-century opera repertoire. The Turn of the Screw Britten’s chilling adaptation of Henry James’ novella, with a libretto by Myfanwy Piper, is one of his most effective stage works. As well as a new production in Bremen, The Turn of the Screw returns to Glyndebourne and can also be seen (in Swedish) in the impressive surroundings of Läckö Castle. New production late 2011 Bremen. Frank Hilbrich director. Theater am Goetheplatz, 28 October 2011 - 9 February 2012 (14 performances). Daniel Montané conductor. www.theaterbremen.de Other productions late 2011 Lidkoping (in Swedish). Patrik Sörling director. Läckö Slottsopera, 15 July - 5 August 2011 (13 performances). Simon Phipps/Johan Larsson conductors. www.lackoslott.se Glyndebourne. Jonathan Kent director. Glyndebourne Festival Opera, 11 - 28 August 2011 (8 performances). Jakub Hrusa conductor. www.glyndebourne.com
A Midsummer Night’s Dream BPF has recently filmed interviews with two people who took part in the first production of Britten’s enchanting version of Shakespeare’s comedy: stage director John Copley and Barry Ferguson (above), who played Moth. You can see both films, which include photographs and audio from the original 1960 production on our website at www.brittenpears.org. New production late 2011 Luzern. Alexander Schulin director. Luzerner Theater, 9 September - 15 October 2011 (10 performances). Howard Arman conductor. www.luzernertheater.ch
The Burning Fiery Furnace After the inward concentration of Curlew River, Britten set out to make his second Church Parable ‘something much less sombre’. Based on the Old Testament story of Nebuchadnezzar and the three Israelites, The Burning Fiery Furnace uses the same basic structure and musical forces as its predecessor, but takes a more flexible approach with a greater range of colour. New production late 2011 Warsaw. Maciej Prus director. Warsaw Chamber Opera Theatre, 10 - 14 October 2011 (3 performances). Kai Bumann conductor. www.operakameralna.pl
Glyndebourne’s own label has just released on CD a 2007 recording of this production, conducted by Edward Gardner and with a cast including William Burden, Camilla Tilling, Joanna Songi, Christopher Sladdin, Anne-Marie Owens and Emma Bell. ‘Ed Gardner has penetrated right inside this score: he knows every twist of motif and colour and the reasons why.’ (The Times)
Peter Grimes David Alden’s much-praised production reaches its third co-producer, Ópera de Oviedo. New production late 2011 Oviedo. David Alden director. Ópera de Oviedo, 29 January - 4 February 2012 (4 performances). Corrado Rovaris conductor. Co-production with ENO and De Vlaamse Opera. www.operaoviedo.com
Britten—Pears Foundation | www.brittenpears.org
Recent Britten releases Opus Arte has just released Glyndebourne’s 2010 production of Billy Budd – directed by Michael Grandage in his opera debut – on DVD and Blu-ray. Mark Elder conducts the London Philharmonic Orchestra, with an impressive cast headed by John Mark Ainsley as Vere, Jacques Imbrailo as Budd and Phillip Ens as Claggart. DVD: OA 1051 D. Blu-ray: OA BD7086 D.
This new release from Onyx is the first in a 2-volume cycle of 4CDs in which Malcolm Martineau and some of the finest young singers around survey all of Britten’s songs for voice and piano. ONYX4071.
Meanwhile, on Chandos, Edward Gardner and the BBC Symphony Orchestra are joined by mezzosoprano Sarah Connolly and viola player Maxim Rysanov in another recording that spans Britten’s career, from the early Two Portraits and Sinfonietta to the late masterpiece Phaedra. Also featured is A Charm of Lullabies (in Colin Matthews’ orchestrated version).
The Red House | Summer 2011
Aldeburgh Music news Maria Bennell on a new initiative by our sister organisation, Aldeburgh Music, that forms part of London’s 2012 Cultural Olympiad.
The Aldeburgh World Orchestra (AWO) is an ambitious international project formed for the London 2012 Olympics. Made up entirely of emerging professional musicians it will be conducted by one the UK’s leading musical figures, Sir Mark Elder. The orchestra’s Aldeburgh residency will culminate in high-profile performances at Snape Maltings and the BBC Proms, plus a short European tour including the worldfamous Amsterdam Concertgebouw and the Audi Festival Ingolstadt near Munich. Founded by Britten and Peter Pears, Aldeburgh Music is one of the world’s leading providers of artist development for professional musicians. The AWO builds on Aldeburgh Music’s thirty years’ experience of supporting and inspiring each generation of exceptional young international musicians. For the AWO we will select 124 of the best young instrumentalists from across the globe including top talent from Asia, the Middle East, Africa, the Americas, Oceania and Europe. The AWO will meet from 6-29 July 2012 and the project will form part of the London 2012 Festival, the Cultural Olympiad. The orchestra will work on an ambitious programme that will be mentored by top calibre principal players from the world’s great orchestras. Repertoire includes Britten’s Sinfonia da Requiem, Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5, the Adagio from Mahler’s Symphony No. 10 and Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring as well as the world premiere of a new BBC commission by Aldeburgh young composer Charlotte Bray. The orchestra’s international reach and its age range of 18–29 years provide a unique set of artistic possibilities, with exceptional musicians from differing cultural backgrounds working together, comparing notes, leaving a legacy of contacts and networks. www.aldeburgh.co.uk Photo: Malcolm Watson.
‘The real stunner, however, is Lachrymae ... in the orchestral version Britten completed shortly before his death ... An austere meditation on the relationship between art and mortality, it benefits immensely from Edward Gardner's lean conducting and the sparse intensity of Maxim Rysanov's playing.’ (The Guardian) CHAN 10671
Britten—Pears Foundation | www.brittenpears.org
The Red House | Summer 2011
Britten at work This year’s exhibition at The Red House glimpses over the shoulder of a musical genius at his desk.
The Library was added to the site in 1963–64, and also served as a rehearsal space.
The unheated swimming pool was created in 1960 (and is still under the exhibition gallery).
Britten’s composing desk is the centrepiece of the exhibition. Photo: Nigel Luckhurst.
The exhibition follows Britten as he works tirelessly through a typically busy year: 1961. It also evokes the space in which much of this work was done: ‘a nice remote studio where I can bang away to my heart’s content.’ Though he once joked to local schoolchildren that the view from the studio could be a distraction – ‘there’s a blackbird making its nest just outside the window and I’m interested to know whether she’s sitting on her eggs when I should be working’ – the sheer volume of Britten’s output in 1961, as in most other years, tells another story. Creatively that year was dominated by the composition of the Cello Sonata and War Requiem. He also made several recordings, gave performances in Britain and abroad, and welcomed for the first time Mstislav Rostropovich and his wife, Galina Vishnevskaya, to a particularly intense and creative Aldeburgh Festival. Photo: Nigel Luckhurst.
As well as drawing on his own archive, the exhibition includes insights into Britten’s working methods from close collaborators such as Imogen Holst, his music assistant. Her diaries from the early 1950s record in vivid detail the pressures of composing major works such as Gloriana, and also precious moments relaxing: ‘He asked me to go round in the evening to dinner ... When I got there he was ... feeling quite mystified about speeds and lengths of dances, so I said I’d go to Oxford the next day to have lessons on the Pavane, Galliard, Coranto and La Volta. Then after dinner we played Happy Families and were frivolous.’ The Happy Families cards, and other frivolities, are on show, along with Imogen Holst’s diaries, both the draft and full score of War Requiem, and manuscripts of other pieces from 1961. Most evocative of all, the exhibition features the actual desk at which many of Britten’s greatest works were written. Britten at work continues at The Red House, Aldeburgh, until 31 August 2011. Tues – Sat, 2–5pm. Admission free.
Above One of Britten’s old school exercise books, in which he set out the text for War Requiem. The Latin of the Requiem Mass is interspersed with the English poetry of Wilfred Owen. Britten seems to have planned the work in the first months of 1961. Photo: Nigel Luckhurst.
Britten—Pears Foundation | www.brittenpears.org
The Red House | Summer 2011
The active archive: recording for the Britten Thematic Catalogue BPF is using an innovative crowdsourcing approach to help compile this definitive catalogue of Britten’s entire output.
This outhouse (now Red Cottage) was converted into Britten’s studio and garage by July 1958.
The Red House: Britten and Pears moved here in November 1957. This photo shows the site in the mid-60s.
Below The composition draft of War Requiem. Britten described this ‘short score’ stage as follows: ‘Instead of writing the thirty odd lines which one needs for a full score, I write it in two or three or four staves indicating the instruments.’ Britten started drafting the Requiem in April or May 1961 and finished that December. Photo: Nigel Luckhurst.
Thematic catalogues of composers’ complete works traditionally include incipits: short excerpts of opening bars. The Britten Thematic Catalogue – a major research project that BPF aims to complete in time for Britten’s 2013 centenary – is using the Web to include audio incipits as well as longer typeset ones than would be possible in print. The scope of the catalogue covers not only Britten’s published works, most of which have already been commercially recorded, but also the unpublished ones. Since there are well over a thousand of these, recording incipits for them is a huge undertaking. BPF’s Jonathan Manton (who recently relocated to the USA) has formed links with music schools and university departments on the East Coast. These contacts recently led to a recording session in New York by the DillerQuaile String Quartet (above), Quartet-in-Residence at the DillerQuaile School of Music. The Quartet recorded extracts from works Britten wrote for the genre during his childhood, masterfully negotiating more than 60 incipits over three days. BPF would like to thank the Diller-Quaile School of Music for supporting this initiative so generously. Work has also started on a number of solo piano incipits at Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The project team is also looking further afield for help, and is inviting musicians worldwide to submit their own recordings of extracts from unpublished Britten works, starting with a number of solo piano works. If you would like to get involved, please go to the Britten Thematic Catalogue part of our website, www.brittenpears.org.
Here you can find a list of the works we hope to have recorded. When you have identified a work you would like to record you can print the incipit. Once recorded you can submit the audio file via the link provided on each work record. Audio files may be submitted in any of these formats: AIFF, WAV, FLAC, OGG, MP3, AAC. Submitted audio files will be checked by the project staff to make sure they are played as written without any additional expression or interpretation, well performed and recorded to a reasonable quality with no background noise. Credits for recordings used will be included alongside the audio extract in the final published edition of the resource, due for release in 2013. We will be uploading further incipits, covering various genres, over coming months so please continue to check the website for further updates.
‘Quartette in G’, 1927. Photo: Nigel Luckhurst.
Britten—Pears Foundation | www.brittenpears.org
The Red House | Summer 2011
Landmark Archive Centre for 2013 cont. from page 1
Until now the archive collection has been stored in a number of spaces converted from the original farm buildings attached to The Red House. The new Archive Centre will not only improve environmental conditions but provide much better study facilities for researchers, and enhanced working conditions for staff and volunteers. Visually the building is expressed as two interlocking forms, reflecting its internal functions. The area to the north contains staff offices, support spaces and a study room and has a flat, green roof. This element of the building will sit within the site as a garden pavilion, with generous windows on the west and north façades allowing views out to the gardens, giving a strong sense of connection to the rest of the site for staff and visitors in the reading room. The area will have a green sedum roof, designed to blend the form into the landscape and encourage biodiversity. Overall the design aims to create a building firmly rooted in its context which feels appropriate and natural whilst at the same time expressing the significance and the importance of the archive. The use of red brick as the primary external material is in keeping with the site, connecting with the main house and Library buildings, while the roof shapes of the office area and the archive resonate with Cosy Nook and Red Studio. Texture and warmth are added by the use of timber. The brick motif will continue through the landscaping, with a brick path connecting the new building to the rest of the site. London-based Stanton Williams have built an international reputation for exceptional heritage spaces, for clients including Compton Verney, the V&A and the Stadtmuseum, Berlin. In each project, space, light and materials have come together to create places of lasting value which respond to their cultural, social and physical context. Their outstanding new design for BPF’s new Archive Centre is no exception.
Concept diagram - two interlocking for forms
Important notice to researchers Our reading room will be closed from March 2012 – June 2013 while the new Archive Centre is built. Building the new Archive Centre – and making better use of the vacated space in our existing buildings – means that The Red House site will need to close to the public during the construction period. Although we will close our exhibition and house tour programme to the general public at the end of August this year, we are able to keep our reading room open to researchers a few months longer – until March 2012. After that, to ensure the safety of the collections, we will need to store them in a secure environment for a period of 15 months while building takes place on site. Our aim is to welcome readers back to the enhanced facilities of the new Archive Centre in June 2013. During the 15-month closed period it will not be possible to offer physical access to any of our collections. We are therefore asking anyone planning research that requires access to original material in our collections to bear this in mind when scheduling their project timetable. To avoid a last-minute rush at what will be a very busy time for our staff as they prepare to move the collections, we would be very grateful if researchers who may need to use the archive would get in touch with us as early as possible. Between now and March 2012 our Librarian, Dr Nicholas Clark, and his colleagues will continue to offer their usual support to visiting researchers.
From March 2012, during the closure, we will still operate our enquiries service (enquiries@brittenpears.org) and provide as much of a ‘long distance’ service as possible. With no access to material in storage, however, there will inevitably be a small number of enquiries that will have to wait until the June 2013 re-opening. BPF would like to apologise for any inconvenience these arrangements may cause. We are sure that readers will understand that a building project of this size, on a site such as ours, will inevitably cause some disruption, and will agree that the long-term safety of this irreplaceable collection must be our first priority. If you have any questions about our reader services over the coming two years, or are planning a research visit here, please contact our enquiries team at enquiries@brittenpears.org.
Britten–Pears Foundation The Red House Golf Lane Aldeburgh, Suffolk IP15 5PZ, UK + 44 1728 451700 Registered charity 295595 To subscribe, unsubscribe or update your contact details, please e-mail reveal@brittenpears.org