Par BENJAMIN GEORGE. 'Benjamin augurs well to become the most important British composer of his generation. An Antara is a Peruvian panpipe. Benjamin's 1987 work synthesizes its sound via computer and adds trombones, flutes, percussion and strings for a 20-minute essay that dazzles as much for its textures (from lush strings to the wham of an orchestral anvil) as it does for its alert rhythmic sch…

Opera in Seven Scenes. Par BENJAMIN GEORGE. Picture a day like this is the fourth collaboration between George Benjamin and Martin Crimp, whose acclaimed partnership produced Written on Skin, Lessons in Love and Violence, and Into the Little Hill. The 60-minute opera is cast in seven scenes and scored for five voices (S-S-MS-Ct-Bar) and twenty-two instrumentalists. It premiered at the Aix-en-Prove…

Par BENJAMIN GEORGE. Premiered in 2018, the 90-minute opera Lessons in Love and Violence delves into the dark and turbulent events of Edward II's life and death. George Benjamin and Martin Crimp's third collaboration, it unfolds as a taut slow burning arch of seven tableaux. This work boasts particularly rich string textures, and is coloured by basset horn and cimbalom together with a pair of harp…

Par PART ARVO. This piece is Pärt's tribute to Benjamin Britten who died in 1976. Arvo Pärt: In the past years we have had many losses in the world of music to mourn. Why did the date of Benjamin Britten's death - 4 December 1976 - touch such a chord in me? During this time I was obviously at the point where I could recognize the magnitude of such a loss. Inexplicable feelings of guilt, more than …

Par BRITTEN BENJAMIN. Benjamin Britten composa son Overture Op.38 occasionnel, pour l'ouverture du troisième programme BBC le 29 Septembre 1946, année où elle a été réalisée par le BBC Symphony Orchestra dirigé par Sir Adrian Boult. Elle n'a pas été entendue à nouveau jusqu'en 1982, lorsque les exécuteurs testamentaires du compositeur . décidé qu'il devrait être rétabli Compte tenu de la prédomina…

Par BENJAMIN GEORGE. Full Score for Orchestra of George Benjamin's stunning Ringed By The Flat Horizon . 'This work contains some of the most startlingly precise storm music ever written - it seems less evocation than the sound of the thing itself. But there is more to it than that: Eliot's lines suggested form for the music, and the piece is music, and not just illustration. It moves through an o…

Par BRITTEN BENJAMIN. Benjamin Britten wrote his 'String Quartet in F' in April 1928, shortly after he began lessons with Frank Bridge. He was fourteen at the time and it is thought that this piece was set as a homework exercise by this new teacher.This study score is in four parts./ Répertoire / Quatuor à Cordes

Par BRITTEN BENJAMIN. 2013 marks the centenary of Benjamin Britten's birth and major celebrations are planned across the world, making this the widest ever global celebration of a British composer. The previously unpublished Six Early Songs were written during the composer's schooldays, whilst he was studying with Frank Bridge. But even at this tender age, Britten already had such accomplished wor…

Par BENJAMIN GEORGE. '. . .the sheer technical aplomb of the work continues to amaze. Benjamin wrote it when he was eighteen - the beautifully dappled structure and wonderfully imagined effects seem to evidence a far deeper maturity.'Financial Times (Andrew Clements), 24 February 1987/ Répertoire / Conducteur

Par BRITTEN BENJAMIN. Benjamin Britten's 1937 composition, The Company Of Heaven is a dramatic work of considerable substance, from which individual movements may be performed separately as anthems or concert works. The work sets a variety of texts from authors as varied as John Ruskin, Francis Thompson, Christina Rossetti, Blake and Bunyan./ Répertoire / Conducteur

Par ELLIN BENJAMIN. Nahstops 2 was written in 2004 at the request of James Watson, then Head of Wind, Brass and Percussion at the Royal Academy of Music. ‘Jim’, as we knew him, had been a supporter of my music during my student days and the only prerequisite for this piece was that it fitted the same instrumentation as Elgar Howarth’s version of ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’; ie, a large symphonic b…

Stringsets. Par BRITTEN BENJAMIN. Benjamin Britten's last completed composition, Welcome Ode was originally written for school choir and orchestra. The three movements - Jig, Roundel and Canon, here transcribed for strings (score and parts), form the Welcome Suite which ensembles familiar with Britten's earlier Simple Symphony will find equally challenging and rewarding./ Répertoire / Cordes

for wind quintet and piano. Par SCHWEITZER BENJAMIN. Benjamin Schweitzer presents his first work for this combination. Willing to try out something new, he adds to the typical character of the wind instruments the sound of the piano. The work is made up of two movements, each movement of several parts. Complex interwoven passages are set against stringently composed sections. The composer says of …