Benjamin Britten - Phaedra; Lachrymae; Sinfonietta (Sarah Connolly; Edward Gardner)

Information

Composer: Benjamin Britten

• Phaedra, dramatic cantata for mezzo-soprano and small orchestra, Op. 93
• A Charm of Lullabies, for mezzo-soprano and orchestra, Op. 41
• Lachrymae, for solo viola and string orchestra, Op. 48a
• Two Portraits
• Sinfonietta, Op. 1

Sarah Connolly, mezzo-soprano

Maxim Rysanov, viola

BBC Symphony Orchestra

Edward Gardner, conductor

Date: 2011

Label: Chandos

-----------------------------------------------------------

Review

In just over 70 minutes, this disc takes us from the dawn of Britten’s creative life to its sunset. The earliest work is the Two Portraits, a student work dating from summer 1930. Edward Gardner’s sensitivity to the bittersweet Thirties idiom of the first portrait and the elegiac eloquence of viola soloist Maxim Rysanov in the second combine to highly atmospheric effect. By contrast, the latest work is the dramatic cantata Phaedra, composed for Janet Baker and one of the minor masterpieces of Britten’s last years. Spurred on by Gardner’s keen sense of theatre, Sarah Connolly goes straight for the drama. Though there are points where memories of Janet Baker’s very individual accents (Philips, 5/90) are impossible to erase, Connolly uses her larger voice and breadth of scale to create a veritable operatic scena.

The rest of the programme is cleverly planned around a series of orchestral arrangements of smaller works. Rysanov returns as soloist in a deeply thoughtful performance of Lachrymae in Britten’s own later version for small string orchestra, and Connolly comes back as the warm-voiced soloist in the orchestral version of A Charm of Lullabies so skilfully made by Colin Matthews that it could be by Britten himself. Finally, Gardner leads a brilliant performance of the Sinfonietta, Op 1, showing how Britten’s version for small orchestra and two horns can add colour without losing all its original chamber-music edge thanks to vital playing from the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chandos’s excellent sound. None of these is a first recording but every one is top quality. Imaginative programme, highly recommended.

— Richard Fairman

-----------------------------------------------------------

Benjamin Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976) was a leading British composer, pianist and conductor. Trained at the Royal College of Music, he gained early acclaim with Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge and achieved international prominence with the opera Peter Grimes (1945). His major stage works include Billy Budd, The Turn of the Screw, and Death in Venice, alongside innovative church parables such as Curlew River. Co-founder of the Aldeburgh Festival, he also composed celebrated song cycles, choral works including the War Requiem, and notable orchestral and chamber music.

***

Edward Gardner (born 22 November 1974) is an English conductor. Educated at the University of Cambridge and the Royal Academy of Music, he began as a choral conductor and répétiteur before advancing to major roles. He served as music director of English National Opera (2007–15) and later held key positions with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the Bergen Philharmonic (2015–24), where he became honorary conductor. Since 2021, he has been principal conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, with tenure extended to 2028. Gardner has recorded for EMI Classics and Chandos Records.

-----------------------------------------------------------