Britten: The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, Op. 34

Gennadi Rozhdestvensky (b.1931) is the last living survivor of a great Russian quartet of conductors consisting of Mravinsky, Kondrashin and Svetlanov.

He was the highly distinguished principal conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra from 1978 to 1981, an exciting period in the orchestra’s history faithfully captured here.

During this period, he conducted many British composers, a favourite being Britten (the Russian premiere of A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Vaughan Williams (a complete cycle on Melodiya), Walton, Elgar, Maxwell Davies (the premiere of Symphony No.2) and John Tavener.

These recordings of Holst’s Planets and Britten’s Variations & Fugue on a Theme of Purcell have never been issued before on CD.

The Planets is new to Rozhdestvensky’s extensive discography. Rozhdestvensky’s 1980 Royal Festival Hall performance is a freshly conceived interpretation of The Planets which is both exciting and superbly played, and the stereo recording has a spectacular dynamic range.

The performance of Britten’s Variations & Fugue on a Theme of Purcell was given on a Far East tour in Osaka, Japan in 1981. Osaka’s Royal Festival Hall has a wonderful natural acoustic which invests each instrument with great clarity and warmth.

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.