Britten

[Serial_Apologist]

I agree, it really seems like they rolled the dice on the recordings. I can’t say that the script has been particularly interesting either. You’d think that when spending several hours on one composer they might be able to do a little more homework. I haven’t really listened to CotW much before, are they all like this?

No, they have often been very good on the whole, and one of the few programmes judged here to be of the standard espoused for Radio 3 in the good old days. I do sometimes wonder, following his unqualified eulogising of the St Nicholas Cantata - in which I was made to be the treble soloist at school - if MacLeod is free to make his own choices on which composers to curate. If so it would be understandable - no one likes every composer - but might account for the many repeats and exclusions from the list. Perhaps they should have guest hosts for neglected figures.

[JakaBasej]

I hope I may be forgiven for lapsing into ‘autobiographical mode’ in the course of this posting. As a horn player who has been lucky enough to play ‘in concert’ more Mozart and Richard Strauss concertos ‘than I care to remember’ in the course of a 50+ year career, as well as the occasional Haydn or Weber concerto, I can honestly say that the Britten ‘Serenade’ has been the most meaningful piece of ‘horn music’ that I have ever been privileged to perform. But of course it certainly isn’t just ‘horn music’, it is a deeply collaborative work in which the horn player is, apart from in the Prologue and Epilogue, at best a commentator, an observer and, hopefully, an ‘enhancer’ of the singer’s art. At worst, an inept and/ or under-prepared horn player can ruin the piece.

The very first time that I was totally ‘bowled over’ by the Serenade was in about 1965, my 3rd year at the old RMCM (now RNCM) when I heard Gerald English and Ifor James perform it.
Only 3 years later I was fortunate enough to ‘have a go at it’ for the very first time, as horn soloist in a ‘BBC Radio 3 Studio recording’ with the wonderful Robert Tear and the BBC SSO, conducted by James Loughran.
If that had been a public concert it would have been ‘panned’ by the critics (if any had bothered to attend) because I had unfortunately misjudged how very difficult the horn part is, and so I played it rather badly!
Bob Tear, quite apart from singing magnificently, was absolutely lovely and supportive, saying to me ‘all horn players get those bits wrong’ and of course this cheered me up, if only temporarily!

Subsequently, during the course of my 14 years as principal horn of the E.C.O. I was privileged to perform the Serenade many times with Bob Tear and Anthony Rolfe Johnson, as well as with Clifford Hughes and Neil Mackie outside of the ECO connection.
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In 1989 my long-standing hope / wish to perform or even record the Serenade with Gerald English came to an end when I was asked by the ‘Nimbus’ company to record it with the American tenor Jerry Hadley. This proved to be hugely uplifting! It was a revelation to hear a real ‘bel canto singer with heft’ enjoying Britten, a very refreshing and valid change from the ‘English tenor’ style. But 18 years later, what a desperately sad thing it was, in 2007, to hear that Jerry had committed suicide.

My final ‘goodbye’ to the Serenade came about 20 years ago when Bob Tear phoned me and asked me to play as Crypto POS in a couple of concerts with ‘The Orchestra of the Mill’ (based in Wigan, Lancashire, and of which he was their principal guest conductor!) in which he wanted me to play not only the Britten Serenade, but also the Richard Strauss 1st horn concerto, in the 2nd half of the concert. When I asked him WHY BOTH?… he said “ ‘I’ve always loved the Strauss 1st horn concerto and have always wanted to conduct it!” In the event he conducted it beautifully, but wisely concentrated only on singing in the Serenade, which was expertly conducted by Peter Donohoe.

My absolute favourite and, IMV, the greatest recording of the Serenade is the Pears/ Brain one made in about 1952-1953 by Decca, conducted not by Britten but by Eugene Goossens. Dennis had recently switched his allegiance from the French to the German horn, and his contribution is audibly superior to that in the earlier recording with the Boyd Neel orchestra, on which he played a 19th century French piston horn with a rather thin and ‘pinched’ sound. However, ‘Beauty is in the eye of the beholder’ and I know that several colleagues prefer Dennis’s tone on that 1940s recording.
Dennis’s sound on this 1952-53 recording is incomparable IMV, almost unbelievably round and suave except for, of course, his brassily intense tone in the ‘Dirge’. Peter Pears is on absolutely top form and IMV this recorded version represents both artists performing at the absolute ‘pinnacle’ of their art.
NB: avoid the later Decca ‘Eclipse’ LP with ‘artificial stereo’ which is a woolly and boomy travesty of the superb 'mono' sound on the original ‘AXL’ LP.
Originally Posted by ardcarp View Post
Try listening to today's edition in which the Serenade for Tenor Horn and Strings was featured. It was magnificent! Not Pears, however but Robert Tear. Quite early on in his career, I recall, he began to cultivate the Pears vocal technique which involves a somewhat 'closed throat' style of delivery, but which allows terrific control over a wide range of expression and dynamics. This was demonstrated in spades today. RT died a few years ago, sadly, but I don't think any other tenor has interpreted Britten/Pears roles so successfully. (All IMVHO of course.)

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...about 32mins 30 from start.
Postscript: ‘Runner up’ must surely be a ‘tie’ between the other two recordings that I often listen to apart from the above Pears/ Brain:
Pears/ Tuckwell/ Britten / Decca; and Tear/ Clevenger/ Giulini/ DG which we heard this week on R3.

Totally agree I stop listening to the 10 years ago. the greatest recording of the Serenade is the Pears/ Brain one made in about 1952-1953 by Decca was my favorite. I do not know how but after that I started listening to Betowen. His songs are also rich in melody.