A fine celebration of the Benjamin Britten Birth Centenary Year (2013) from Channel Classics. The four works on this disc are some of Britten's best known and best loved. Of course, they have been recorded frequently, with several versions in SA-CD already, so any new ones have to be special to be counted amongst the existing best. Britten's own recorded versions are, as always, the ultimate touchstones.

Variations on a theme of Frank Bridge (1937), 'Les Illumination's (1938), Serenade for tenor, horn and string orchestra and 'Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal' (both 1943) were written before Britten's 30th birthday. Related by a stream of growing inspiration, these works show not only his mastery of string writing but also an innate skill in word-setting, be it Rimbaud's obscure, opaque French texts in Les Illuminations or the setting of various poets in English verse for the Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings.

Most of Britten's song pieces have been invaded by tenors in recent years, so it is time to hear a soprano again. A young Canadian soprano, Barbara Hannigan, has been garnering great critical and public acclamation for her world-wide performances of 'Les Illuminations'. She certainly comes up to high expectations in this programme too. Her fresh-sounding voice is smooth and pure, especially in its upper register. Vocal clarity and security, impeccable pitch and strong sense of rhythm give her the ability to bend and twist those arabesques of French speech rhythms which singers must discern in Britten.

Hannigan communicates Rimbaud’s often obscure texts with convincing engagement, delivering Britten’s searching coloratura effects with triumphant panache. With Candida Thompson's lead, the Amsterdam Sinfonietta take to Britten's virtuosic string orchestral accompaniments as if born to the music, not just supporting but fully partnering in presenting the essence of Rimbaud's Symbolic excesses. An account of breathtaking acumen and skill from all participants.


The Sinfonietta is similarly engaged with Britten's "Variations" present for his former teacher and mentor, composer Frank Bridge. This gem of a string piece in variation form has a dryly humorous basis, Britten revelling in concocting wicked parodies of forms such as the March (manic) and Viennese Waltz (undanceable). The Sinfonietta willingly respond to this aspect of the Variations, as well as the more poetic ones such as the Elegy, which is deeply touching. They obviously know Britten's recording with the LSO; the Sinfonietta's timings for each variation are only a few seconds different to the composer's and their intensity and passion cannot be faulted. The sound of Sinfonietta is much more resonant and strong than the 12 instrument Scottish Ensemble (Britten: Les Illuminations - Scottish Ensemble), which now would be ousted by essentially the same programme on the new Channel version. Padmore's Serenade (Britten, Finzi: Song Cycles - Padmore, Shave), however, remains well worth hearing.

The Serenade for tenor, horn and string orchestra does indeed require a tenor; there should be no invasions of sopranos here. James Gilchrist has built up, as part of a varied career, a strong reputation for his interpretations of English songs, particularly those of Butterworth and Britten. He is in excellent and astonishingly flexible voice here, devoted (with the Sinfonietta) to bring out every poetic line of Britten's eclectic collection of English Poetry through the ages. His partner is principal horn for the Concertgebouw orchestra, Jasper de Waal, who responds to Britten's technical trials with perfect aplomb, following happily in the footsteps of pioneering hornists in this work such as Dennis Brain, Alan Civil and Barry Tuckwell. Together, Gilchrist and de Waal conjure up a marvellous, deeply contemplative and moving Serenade, certainly one to remember and treasure.

Tennyson's passionate love poem, 'Now sleeps the crimson petal' was completed as part of a "reservoir" of songs for horn and tenor from which Britten selected those to appear in the Serenade. 'Now sleeps' was left out, and the Britten Trust has strict rules that it may not precede or immediately follow the Serenade under any circumstances, and if played after a performance, it must be significantly distanced. A simply gorgeous masterpiece, in my view, it nevertheless is gaining a place of its own. Channel Classics put it after the Serenade, but after a reasonable pause, and clearly marked as a separate track. Hopefully they are within the 'regulations'!

Gilchrist's solo for 'Crimson petal' is amazing. His sheer concentration and inward personalisation of the vocal line is breathtaking; most engaging in this often very soft and slowly unfolding song.

You will need to have a very low noise floor in your listening space to get the best of the wide dynamic range of this disc. Les Illuminations was recorded in The Philharmonie, Haarlem: very clear and with good bloom on the strings and an acoustic which doesn't draw attention to itself. The Variations and Serenade, however, were taken in Stadsgehoortsaal, Leiden, which has a much more resonant acoustic, with plenty of sound from the rear speakers if you have multichannel. You don't get such a surprising change of ambience and slight distancing of the performers in stereo mode. In multichannel you can also hear the horn's Prelude to the Serenade to come from the R surround (difficult to locate precisely because of the reverberation), and it sounds too close for my taste. It returns to centre stage and respectful distance for the rest of the work. In the horn's solo for the Epilogue it remains in the front stage, although the score has an instruction to play "off stage". There is no such instruction for the Prelude!

One notable result of having a recording with so much positional and timbral detail is that subtleties of Britten's innovative harmonic writing are now plain to the ears. In all three works, he tends to use the now fashionable tone-clusters in inner parts very often, and the tonal colour and beats which result from the clash of harmonically adjacent notes are now magically revealed - and the instruments involved located.

Channel Classics have got Britten's Birth Centenary off to a racing start with this marvellous issue. I hope it presages a solid reassessment of Britten performances in the C21st, with recordings not just of works as familiar as those on this first disc, but bringing forward less often aired works - especially if they are produced as SA-CDs. Of course, having said that, most of the recordings will already be in the can for some time...

Copyright © 2013 John Miller and HRAudio.net

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