Britten: Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes, Op. 33a

In this new release, we present a unique group of works, including the rarely recorded Symphonic Suite from Gloriana, the Symphony for Cello and Orchestra, and one of Britten’s most popular works, the Four Sea Interludes. They are performed by the BBC Philharmonic with two exclusive Chandos artists: Edward Gardner, the music director of English National Opera and well known for his interpretations of the music of Britten, and Paul Watkins, one of the world’s leading cellists.

The Symphony for Cello and Orchestra was Britten’s only substantial piece of absolute symphonic music. As the title suggests, throughout the work the soloist and the orchestra are treated on equal terms, sharing all the important melodic material. The symphony was originally written for the Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich who held a unique position among the various creative partners of Britten, inspiring him to compose abstract instrumental music at a time when his heavy commitments to the operatic genre and vocal music might otherwise have left him little time or inclination for it. The work was premiered in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory in 1964 by Rostropovich and the Moscow Philharmonic under Britten’s baton. The performance was a success, and the local students who attended the concert were so enthusiastic in their response that the finale had to be encored.

The Four Sea Interludes consist of highly memorable orchestral interludes which Britten extracted for concert performance from the score of his large-scale opera Peter Grimes. The premiere of the opera famously reopened London’s Sadler’s Wells Theatre in 1945 to such tremendous critical acclaim that the fortunes of English opera were revived almost overnight. The North Sea, both benign and savage, plays a central role in the drama and its contrasting facets are celebrated in the interludes. ‘Sunday Morning’ depicts the sun glittering on the waves and the jubilant pealing of church bells, while ‘Storm’, a ferocious orchestral tempest performed in the difficult key of E minor, symbolises Grimes’s inner turmoil and yearning for a peaceful haven.

The Symphonic Suite derives from the opera Gloriana which was first performed at the Royal Opera House at a gala event in 1953 to celebrate the Coronation of HM The Queen. The work depicted – perhaps unwisely in view of the audience – the ill-fated relationship between Elizabeth I and the Earl of Essex. The opera’s infamously negative reception meant that the work was rarely performed again in the composer’s lifetime. Britten, however, did salvage some orchestral extracts from the opera for concert use, including the Suite featured on this disc.

All these superb Decca recordings of the music of Britten were made in 1953. All of the few Britten recordings made by Eugene Goossens have now been released on Decca Eloquence. Remodelled on themes he wrote as a boy, the Simple Symphonys undeniable charm and charisma have ensured it a constant place in repertoire enjoyed not only by children but by adults too. Much the same goes for The Young Persons Guide to the Orchestra, and this Van Beinum recording, one of the works earliest, was something of a demonstration CD for its day. It was coupled with the Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes as well as the Passacaglia, and the latter, much requested, now receives its first issue on Decca CD. Britten recording the Sinfonia da Requiem twice, first in September 1953 with Danish forces and then more than ten years later in December 1964 with the New Philharmonia Orchestra. Andrew Porter, reviewing the earlier recording in the February 1955 issue of The Gramophone declared that it could hardly be bettered. Some 55 years on, it makes its first appearance on CD.

Last year we released the debut album of the Oregon Symphony on PentaTone which received great reviews, both sides of the pond! This new recording has already received some great reviews from the US press and we hope will be equally well received in the UK.

Of the six orchestral works on this recording three are in the composers’ own piano duet versions; two others were transcribed by people in whom the composers had great faith (Rimsky-Korsakov here being considered the composer of Night on Bald Mountain, as Mussorgsky had died), and it must be presumed that Lyadov approved the choice of Kalafati who “was held in great esteem by his colleagues and pupils” (Baker’s “Biographical Dictionary of Musicians”). Three of the six pieces of music involve the supernatural, while the remaining three present “magical” soundscapes in their different ways. The first two items depict very different midsummer festivities.

As a further note, four of the pieces featured on this CD are World Première Recordings. The CD booklet contains highly informative notes by Anthony Goldstone.

With CDs around forty in number and a busy concert schedule stretching back more than a quarter of a century, the British piano duo Goldstone and Clemmow is firmly established as a leading force.

Described by Gramophone as ‘a dazzling husband and wife team’, by International Record Review as ‘a British institution in the best sense of the word’, and by The Herald, Glasgow, as ‘the UK’s pre-eminent two-piano team’, internationally known artists Anthony Goldstone and Caroline Clemmow formed their duo in 1984 and married in 1989. Their extremely diverse activities in two-piano and piano-duet recitals and double concertos, taking in major festivals, have sent them all over the British Isles as well as to Europe, the Middle East and several times to the U.S.A., where they have received standing ovations and such press accolades as ‘revelations such as this are rare in the concert hall these days’ (Charleston Post and Courier). In their refreshingly presented concerts they mix famous masterpieces and fascinating rarities, which they frequently unearth themselves, into absorbing and hugely entertaining programmes; their numerous BBC broadcasts have often included first hearings of unjustly neglected works, and their equally enterprising and acclaimed commercial recordings include many world premières.