Britten: Les Illuminations & Serenade

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Neither Schreier's French nor his English are quite convincing. But he's in his prime vocally, and crisp conducting, full texts and translations makes this tempting. — BBC Music Magazine, June 2014, 3 out of 5 stars

Release Date: 25th Nov 2013
Catalogue No: 94728
Label: Brilliant Classics
Length: 45 minutes

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Britten: Les illuminations, Op. 18

Work length22:22

$10.00

$13.00

Peter Schreier
MDR Sinfonieorchester
Herbert Kegel

No. 1, Fanfare

Track length2:01

$1.00

$1.30

No. 2, Villes

Track length2:22

$1.00

$1.30

No. 3, Phrase -

Track length1:17

$1.00

$1.30

No. 4, Antique

Track length2:07

$1.00

$1.30

No. 4, Royaute

Track length1:34

$1.00

$1.30

No. 5, Marine

Track length1:02

$1.00

$1.30

No. 6, Interlude

Track length2:47

$1.00

$1.30

No. 7, Being Beauteous

Track length4:01

$1.00

$1.30

No. 8, Parade

Track length2:57

$1.00

$1.30

No. 9, Depart

Track length2:14

$1.00

$1.30

Britten: Serenade for Tenor, Horn & Strings, Op. 31

Work length23:32

$8.00

$10.40

Peter Schreier, Gunther Opitz
MDR Sinfonieorchester
Herbert Kegel

No. 1, Prologue

Track length1:10

$1.00

$1.30

No. 2, Pastoral

Track length3:17

$1.00

$1.30

No. 3, Nocturne

Track length4:24

$1.00

$1.30

No. 4, Elegy

Track length3:46

$1.00

$1.30

No. 5, Dirge

Track length3:35

$1.00

$1.30

No. 6, Hymn

Track length2:14

$1.00

$1.30

No. 7, Sonnet

Track length3:57

$1.00

$1.30

No. 8, Epilogue

Track length1:09

$1.00

$1.30

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In this centenary year full of celebrations of Britten's contribution to British life and music, as composer, performer, impresario and public representative of serious music that could yet reach and touch a vast number of people beyond the usual circle of new music mavens, it can be forgotten how well his music has always travelled, not just to other Anglophone countries but in Europe; far more so than the self‐consciously English Edwardians and pastoralists. To the Germans and the Italians, Britten was quickly recognised as a vital continuing link in the now almost‐defunct lyric tradition that could produce new operas on contemporary themes that would catch the public imagination and exploit the full resources of an opera house; a quality Britten shares with a vanishingly small number of composers, all of whom (Mozart, Wagner, Verdi, Puccini and Richard Strauss) belonged to one or other of their musical cultures. And so these East German recordings of two early song cycles belong to their own tradition. Schreier may best be known for his unique authority as a Bach performer, but he brings the same laser‐ like clarity of thought, diction and tuning to Britten's settings of French and English poetry, and Herbert Kegel was, until his tragic suicide, a conductor of uncommonly wide sympathies and powerful convictions about the music of today; these are, then, not recordings nurtured within the native tradition of Britten performance, but they possess an authority all of their own.

Recording of 1967, from the Berlin Classics catalogue.

Booklet contains the sung texts and liner notes.

Reviews

June 2014

Neither Schreier's French nor his English are quite convincing. But he's in his prime vocally, and crisp conducting, full texts and translations makes this tempting.

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