Benjamin Britten: A Birthday Hansel

Release Date: 21st Aug 2015
Catalogue No: TP226
Label: Tall Poppies

Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days

Britten: A Birthday Hansel, Op. 92

Gerald English (tenor), Marshall McGuire (harp)

Britten: Canticle V: The Death of St. Narcissus, Op. 89

Gerald English (tenor), Marshall McGuire (harp)

Britten: Suite for harp in C major, Op. 83

Gerald English (tenor), Marshall McGuire (harp)

Britten: Choral Dances from Gloriana, Op. 53

Gerald English (tenor), Marshall McGuire (harp)
Sydney Chamber Choir

Britten: A Ceremony of Carols, Op. 28: Interlude

Gerald English (tenor), Marshall McGuire (harp)

Britten: Gloriana: 2nd Lute Song

Gerald English (tenor), Marshall McGuire (harp)

Britten: Eight Folk Song Arrangements for High Voice and Harp

Gerald English (tenor), Marshall McGuire (harp)

About
Explore

About

After complications during heart surgery, Britten was unable to accompany his partner Peter Pears in recitals, and although he returned to composition this led to a number of works for tenor and harp (played by their long term colleague Osian Ellis) three of which appear in this collection, released to mark the passing of Britten's centenary.

These include A Birthday Hansel, first performed in January 1976 in a concert honouring the Queen Mother on her 75th birthday (she was Patron of the Aldeburgh Festival at the time). The year previously, Britten had composed Canticle V – The Death of Saint Narcissus for Pears and Ellis, with a text by TS Eliot.

There is a special poignancy to these works which followed his unsuccessful heart operation, often in the way they bravely confront death, as in the last movement of the Suite on English Folk Tunes – a small masterpiece which, even if nothing else of Britten’ s were to survive, would mark him as a great composer.

Benjamin Britten: A Birthday Hansel

CD

Contents

Download queue