Benjamin Britten - Young Person's Guide; Bridge Variations; Simple Symphony

Information

Composer: Benjamin Britten

• The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, Op. 34
• Simple Symphony, Op. 4
• Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge, Op. 10

London Symphony Orchestra

English Chamber Orchestra

Benjamin Britten, conductor

Date: 1963; 1968; 1966

Label: Decca

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Review

Since its first release, Britten’s recording has held a firm place in the affections of both critics and aficionados, and with good reason. Britten and the London Symphony Orchestra had recently made their landmark and highly successful premiere recording of the War Requiem, released to superlative reviews and with phenomenal sales just as they reunited at London’s Kingsway Hall on 27 May 1963 to make this recording of Young Person’s Guide.

The camaraderie of these sessions is infectious: the LSO players are not only on top of their game, but they also communicate a sense of unbuttoned exuberance and joy in their playing, no doubt inspired both by Britten’s tactful yet clear direction and by performing such a light-spirited work (quite a contrast to the bleak and ferocious War Requiem) in which individual players can shine.

In the opening for full orchestra, where so many recordings follow the direction maestoso e largamente (‘majestically and broadly’) all too literally, Britten takes the composer’s prerogative of disregarding his own instruction and launches with a relatively brisk tempo. Any risk of pomposity is deflated, aided by perky and characterful woodwind, boldly confident brass (they know how good they are!), and the vigorous string playing (that moment often sounding stodgy in so many other performances).

Individual variations are all characterful, though among the most striking are the oboes, who sing in a manner unmatched by any other recording, recalling the plangency of David Hemmings, the young treble in Britten’s 1950s opera recordings. There is fine teamwork throughout, with a real sense that players are listening and responding to each other: full marks for the tuba player’s deadpan humour, whether in the instrument’s ever-so-decisive plodding behind the trombones in their variation (where Sargent, by contrast, can’t resist going for broad humour), or the squat-sounding footsteps which accompany the clarinets’ agile athletics.

The performance – done without the narration – is capped by a fleet and virtuosic fugue, yet with a light touch. Here, as in the earlier variations, one senses an orchestra on peak form and on its toes, yet with a real sense of fun that spills over into near riot when the percussion enters the fray, the orchestra billowing and surging as the brass make their tremendous entry with Purcell’s theme.

— Daniel Jaffé

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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.

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