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Britten Abroad
Benjamin Britten

Susan Gritton / Mark Padmore / Iain Burnside

Britten Abroad

Price: € 19.95
Format: CD
Label: Signum Classics
UPC: 0635212012222
Catnr: SIGCD 122
Release date: 01 May 2008
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Label
Signum Classics
UPC
0635212012222
Catalogue number
SIGCD 122
Release date
01 May 2008
Album
Artist(s)
Composer(s)
EN

About the album

Britten’s extraordinary skill and fluency for setting his own native language has sometimes obscured the brilliance with which he embraced a wide range of foreign poetry throughout his career. In fact Britten left a series of exquisite settings, some of his very finest, in French, Italian, Latin, German, Russian, Scot dialect and Medieval English; and the role-call of poets attests to the diversity and sophistication of his literary tastes, including the work of Victor Hugo, Paul Verlaine, Artur Rimbaud, Michelangelo Buonarroti, Friedrich Hölderlin, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Alexander Pushkin, Bertolt Brecht and William Soutar.

The earliest of these works (written when Britten was just fourteen) was the Quatre chansons françaises, settings of Hugo and Verlaine for high voice and orchestra, written in the summer of 1928 for his parents’ twenty-seventh wedding anniversary. Les Illuminations followed a decade later; Latin settings were a constant throughout his career, for his many liturgical settings and notably in War Requiem and the Cantata misericordium; we find Scots dialect in his Souter settings, Who are these children? and his authentic response to the challenge of early English texts is demonstrated in his mystery-play settings, Canticle II: Abraham and Isaac and Noye’s Fludde, and profoundly so in one of his very last works, the choral setting of eight medieval English lyrics, Sacred and Profane.

But Britten’s settings of Italian, Russian, French and German, performed here by Susan Gritton, Mark Padmore and Iain Burnside are certainly amongst the most distinctive and very finest examples of his art, each fashioned specifically for a much-loved and favoured artist.

Artist(s)

Iain Burnside (piano)

Iain Burnside is a pianist who has appeared in recital with many of the world’s leading singers. He is also an insightful programmer with an instinct for the telling juxtaposition. His recordings straddle an exuberantly eclectic repertoire ranging from Beethoven and Schubert to the cutting edge. Burnside’s passion for English Song is reflected in acclaimed albums of Britten, Finzi, Ireland, Butterworth and Vaughan Williams, many with baritone Roderick Williams. Away from the piano Burnside is active as a writer and broadcaster. For Guildhall School of Music & Drama Burnside has devised a number of singular theatre pieces. A Soldier and a Maker, based on the life of Ivor Gurney, was performed at the Barbican Centre and the Cheltenham Festival, and later...
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Iain Burnside is a pianist who has appeared in recital with many of the world’s leading singers. He is also an insightful programmer with an instinct for the telling juxtaposition. His recordings straddle an exuberantly eclectic repertoire ranging from Beethoven and Schubert to the cutting edge. Burnside’s passion for English Song is reflected in acclaimed albums of Britten, Finzi, Ireland, Butterworth and Vaughan Williams, many with baritone Roderick Williams.
Away from the piano Burnside is active as a writer and broadcaster. For Guildhall School of Music & Drama Burnside has devised a number of singular theatre pieces. A Soldier and a Maker, based on the life of Ivor Gurney, was performed at the Barbican Centre and the Cheltenham Festival, and later broadcast by BBC R3 on Armistice Day. Iain Burnside is Artistic Director of the Ludlow English Song Weekend and Artistic Consultant to Grange Park Opera.

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Susan Gritton (soprano)

Mark Padmore (tenor)

Mark Padmore was born in London and grew up in Canterbury. After beginning his musical studies on the clarinet he gained a choral scholarship to King’s College, Cambridge and graduated with an honours degree in music. He has established a flourishing career in opera, concert and recital. His performances in Bach’s Passions have gained particular notice throughout the world. In the opera house he has worked with such theatrically-minded directors as Peter Brook, Katie Mitchell, Mark Morris and Deborah Warner. Recent work includes Les Troyens at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris and Handel’s Jephtha at WNO and ENO. He also played Peter Quint in an acclaimed BBC TV production of Turn of the Screw. Plans include Tom Rakewell in Stravinsky’s...
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Mark Padmore was born in London and grew up in Canterbury. After beginning his musical studies on the clarinet he gained a choral scholarship to King’s College, Cambridge and graduated with an honours degree in music.

He has established a flourishing career in opera, concert and recital. His performances in Bach’s Passions have gained particular notice throughout the world. In the opera house he has worked with such theatrically-minded directors as Peter Brook, Katie Mitchell, Mark Morris and Deborah Warner. Recent work includes Les Troyens at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris and Handel’s Jephtha at WNO and ENO. He also played Peter Quint in an acclaimed BBC TV production of Turn of the Screw. Plans include Tom Rakewell in Stravinsky’s Rake’s Progress at La Monnaie. He recently recorded the title role in La Clemenza di Tito with René Jacobs for Harmonia Mundi for which he received two Grammy nominations.
In concert he has performed with many of the world’s leading orchestras including the Berlin, Vienna and New York Philharmonics, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the LSO and BBCSO. He makes regular appearances with the OAE with whom he conceived a project exploring Bach’s St John Passion which took place in Aldeburgh and London in 2005 and given further performances on tour in 2008. In November 2007 he made his debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Rattle. He has recently toured with the Hallé Orchestra as soloist in Britten’s Serenade conducted by Mark Elder and in 2008 he will be appearing as soloist with the Australian Chamber Orchestra on their European tour.
He has given recitals in Amsterdam, Barcelona, Brussels, Milan, Moscow, New York and Paris. He appears frequently at the Wigmore Hall in London where he performed the three Schubert song cycles in May 2008. As well as his regular collaborators Julius Drake, Roger Vignoles and Andrew West he works with many internationally renowned chamber musicians including Natalie Clein, Imogen Cooper, Till Fellner and Paul Lewis. He has made many recordings including the Bach Passions with Herreweghe and McCreesh, Bach Cantatas with Gardiner and Herreweghe, Haydn Masses with Hickox, Don Giovanni with Harding and operas by Rameau and Charpentier with Christie. His first solo recording for Harmonia Mundi, a recital of Handel Arias with Andrew Manze and the English Concert was released in April 2007. Recent releases include Haydn’s Creation on Deutsche Grammophon and a disc of Dowland Lute Songs with Elizabeth Kenny on Hyperion.

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Composer(s)

Benjamin Britten

Benjamin Britten is one most important British composers from the second half of the twentieth century. Remarkably, he focused on opera, a dying genre, at least in its current form. Britten's contributions however, among which Peter Grimes, The Rape of Lucretia, Gloriana, The Turn of the Screw, and Death in Venice, managed to remain core repertoire for opera companies to this day. Many of these productions included a role for his artistic partner and life companion Peter Pears. Britten also wrote a number of lieder for this tenor, among which his Serenade for tenor, horn and string orchestra. Yet, Britten excelled in many more genres. He wasn't even 20 years old when he composed his brilliant Phantasy for hobo quartet and his friendship with...
more

Benjamin Britten is one most important British composers from the second half of the twentieth century. Remarkably, he focused on opera, a dying genre, at least in its current form. Britten's contributions however, among which Peter Grimes, The Rape of Lucretia, Gloriana, The Turn of the Screw, and Death in Venice, managed to remain core repertoire for opera companies to this day. Many of these productions included a role for his artistic partner and life companion Peter Pears. Britten also wrote a number of lieder for this tenor, among which his Serenade for tenor, horn and string orchestra. Yet, Britten excelled in many more genres. He wasn't even 20 years old when he composed his brilliant Phantasy for hobo quartet and his friendship with the legendary cellist Rostropovich led to a Cello sonata, three Suites for cello solo and a Symphony for Cello and orchestra in the 1960s.

Britten never became Master of the Queen's Music, yet he surely had feeling for public sentiments. For example, as a pacifist, he taught his people about world peace through his War Requiem from 1962. Britten was an excellent interpreter of his own work, just like Bartók and Stravinsky. Many of his recordings have been matched, but never exceeded.


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Press

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01.
Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo, Op.22 -: Sonetto XVI Si come nella penna e nell'inchiostro
02:09
(Benjamin Britten) Susan Gritton, Iain Burnside, Mark Padmore
02.
Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo, Op.22 -: Sonetto XXXI A che piu debb'io mai l'intensa voglia
01:35
(Benjamin Britten) Susan Gritton, Iain Burnside, Mark Padmore
03.
Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo, Op.22 -: Sonetto XXX Veggio co'bei vostri occhi un dolce lum
04:21
(Benjamin Britten) Susan Gritton, Iain Burnside, Mark Padmore
04.
Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo, Op.22 -: Sonetto LV Tu sa'ch'io so, signior mie, che tu sai
02:03
(Benjamin Britten) Susan Gritton, Iain Burnside, Mark Padmore
05.
Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo, Op.22 -: Sonetto XXXVIII Redete a gli occhi miei, o fonte o fiume
02:02
(Benjamin Britten) Susan Gritton, Iain Burnside, Mark Padmore
06.
Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo, Op.22 -: Sonetto XXXII S'un casto amor, s'una pieta superna
01:27
(Benjamin Britten) Susan Gritton, Iain Burnside, Mark Padmore
07.
Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo, Op.22 -: Sonetto XXIV Spirto ben nato, in cui si specchia evede
04:25
(Benjamin Britten) Susan Gritton, Iain Burnside, Mark Padmore
08.
The Poet's Echo, Op. 76: Echo
03:03
(Benjamin Britten) Susan Gritton, Iain Burnside, Mark Padmore
09.
The Poet's Echo, Op. 76: My Heart...
01:51
(Benjamin Britten) Susan Gritton, Iain Burnside, Mark Padmore
10.
The Poet's Echo, Op. 76: Angel
02:15
(Benjamin Britten) Susan Gritton, Iain Burnside, Mark Padmore
11.
The Poet's Echo, Op. 76: The Nightingale and the Rose
04:00
(Benjamin Britten) Susan Gritton, Iain Burnside, Mark Padmore
12.
The Poet's Echo, Op. 76: Epigram
00:48
(Benjamin Britten) Susan Gritton, Iain Burnside, Mark Padmore
13.
The Poet's Echo, Op. 76: Lines written during a sleepless night
04:24
(Benjamin Britten) Susan Gritton, Iain Burnside, Mark Padmore
14.
Four French Folksong Arrangements: La Nöel Passée
03:52
(Benjamin Britten) Susan Gritton, Iain Burnside, Mark Padmore
15.
Four French Folksong Arrangements: Voici le Printemps
02:02
(Benjamin Britten) Susan Gritton, Iain Burnside, Mark Padmore
16.
Four French Folksong Arrangements: Fileuse
02:00
(Benjamin Britten) Susan Gritton, Iain Burnside, Mark Padmore
17.
Four French Folksong Arrangements: Le roi s'en va-t'en chasse
02:12
(Benjamin Britten) Susan Gritton, Iain Burnside, Mark Padmore
18.
Um Mitternacht
04:26
(Benjamin Britten) Susan Gritton, Iain Burnside, Mark Padmore
19.
Sechs Hölderlin-Fragmente, Op. 61: Menschenbeifall
01:32
(Benjamin Britten) Susan Gritton, Iain Burnside, Mark Padmore
20.
Sechs Hölderlin-Fragmente, Op. 61: Die Heimat
02:31
(Benjamin Britten) Susan Gritton, Iain Burnside, Mark Padmore
21.
Sechs Hölderlin-Fragmente, Op. 61: Sokrates und Alcibiades
02:30
(Benjamin Britten) Susan Gritton, Iain Burnside, Mark Padmore
22.
Sechs Hölderlin-Fragmente, Op. 61: Die Jugend
02:03
(Benjamin Britten) Susan Gritton, Iain Burnside, Mark Padmore
23.
Sechs Hölderlin-Fragmente, Op. 61: Hälfte des Lebens
02:22
(Benjamin Britten) Susan Gritton, Iain Burnside, Mark Padmore
24.
Sechs Hölderlin-Fragmente, Op. 61: Die Linien des Lebens
02:24
(Benjamin Britten) Susan Gritton, Iain Burnside, Mark Padmore
25.
Four French Folksong Arrangements: La belle est au jardin d'amour
02:51
(Benjamin Britten) Susan Gritton, Iain Burnside, Mark Padmore
26.
Four French Folksong Arrangements: Il est quelqu'un sur terre
04:35
(Benjamin Britten) Susan Gritton, Iain Burnside, Mark Padmore
27.
Four French Folksong Arrangements Four French Folksong Arrangements: Eho! Eho!
01:59
(Benjamin Britten) Susan Gritton, Iain Burnside, Mark Padmore
28.
Four French Folksong Arrangements: Quand j'étais chez mon père
02:06
(Benjamin Britten) Susan Gritton, Iain Burnside, Mark Padmore
show all tracks

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