Benjamin Britten

[cilgwyn]

C'mon, listen to Paul Bunyan:  you know you want to.

"We dress up in womens clothing
And have buttered scones for tea!
I'm a lumberjack and I'm okay......(altogether now!) One of Britten's best! His Spam song is great,too!!

Bunyan's can be very painful,though!!

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

Michael Palin should be ina production of Paul Bunyan

[Monsieur Croche]

No thread could be as long as the Havergal Brian thread, of course 

I dunno... perhaps all 27 of Sorabji's fans could match it, with a thread stuffed with effusive and enthusiastic commentary running to a length that would come near to matching the duration of some of his works.  (If those contributors are really good, despite the length of their entries, reading them will seem like it takes just forever ;-)

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

I dunno... perhaps all 27 of Sorabji's fans could match it, with a thread stuffed with effusive and enthusiastic commentary running to a length that would come near to matching the duration of some of his works.  (If those contributors are really good, despite the length of their entries, reading them will seem like it takes just forever ;-)

[cilgwyn]

In other words.....Opus typushellofullaloticum! !

[Karl Henning]

Okay, it's a while since I have listened to it myself . . . but am I the only one who actually likes Paul Bunyan?  (I mean, I'm all right with being the only one to like a work . . . even a work by Britten . . . .)

[cilgwyn]

I like Paul Bunyan. At least I'd like to like it,if I still had it. I sold mine some years ago. I needed the money!! Now,after enjoying that cd of Britten's Our Hunting Fathers,which I wasn't going to buy;but the s'h cassette was faulty,so I bought it from a certain ubiquitous seller (in this country).........now,to cut a long,needless story short,I'm starting to think.......what about Paul Bunyan?!! And coincidentally,you bring it up in this thread! Now,I actually think Our Hunting Fathers is great. I also like most of his operas. I have all Britten's Decca recordings,except Billy Budd;which is a bit pricey! Although,I know it from library Lps,I listened to years ago. I also have the old Decca recording of Death in Venice. I liked that,too! Really speaking the thread for a composer of Britten's stature should be at least twice as long as Havergal Brian's.........but I'm not going to lose sleep over the fact that it's so short! I've got more important things to think about like for instance,"Why did I have to sell my copy of Paul Bunyan?!!"  I think I am going to have to put it on my list. I seem to recall that there was a song which included the refrain "Svedish borrn and Svedish brred!" If memory serves me correctly,it was fun..............and again,I wish I hadn't b***** sold it!!

[Karl Henning]

Now, I actually think Our Hunting Fathers is great.

Arguably a minor work, but superb, absolutely superb.

[snyprrr]

 

[knight66]

Our Hunting Fathers: I would like to suggest this version to you with Heather Harper.
_{https://www.amazon.co.uk/Britten-Illuminations-Chansons-Francaises-Berceuse/dp/B01MQ61J6C/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1482482977&sr=8-3&keywords=Our+hunting+fathers+harper}


It is not easily available, only 2nd hand discs now come up;  but it is a good idea to keep an eye out for it at a reasonable price.

I can't generally deal with Pears's voice or mannerisms. Gomez was very good, but this live version has the edge. Harper has a silvery soprano voice and worked a lot with Britten. She is superb in all of the vocal pieces on the disc. All are amongst my favourite Britten. The Four French Songs were only published about 30 years ago despite them being written when Britten was about 14. They are heavily influenced by Debussy and are nothing to be ashamed of, seductive beauty and fundamental themes of childhood and loss are already present. From memory Gomez produced the premier recording of them.

Mike

[cilgwyn]

Thanks for the recommendation. You've got to keep looking,haven't you? C'mon Music Magpie!! I'm not usually very keen on live recordings,but there is obviously a justification for acquiring that one. A pity about that short lived cd label,too! I quite like Peter Pears funnily enough. Only in Britten's music;including his arrangements of folksongs. (I even like Schwarzkopf's singing.I think my shelves are groaning with her cds). Perhaps,literaly?!! I think the Söderström is superb,though. I do wish emi had left out the Serenade with Rober Tear. Not one of my favourite singers. I think there are better recordings. Well,I know there are!! Our Hunting Fathers would have been quite enough for me. I remember buying the earlier cd releases of Handley conducting Elgar Symphonies and VW's Job,because they didn't have any fill-ups. I think Our Hunting Fathers is wonderful,actually......and very entertaining to and fun to listen to. What not to enjoy? All those whoops & rolled rr's! One for unbelievers,who think that Britten is all posh people warbling tunelessly,and think decent opera ended with Verdi and Puccini.......and that Rossini aria in the Fiat ad (Hand built by robots!!).
I get the feeling snyprrr is uncovinced!!

Rrrrr-ats....rrr-ats....and double rrrr-ats (to paraphrase Dick Dastardly) !!

[knight66]

There is quite a lot of sly humour in Britten. As to Pears, I can't take him as Grimes, prissy delivery. However, elsewhere I did write about accidentally encountering him and Britten in the final song from Schubert's Mullerin, mesmerising by them both and I then ran through about a dozen or more performances and none came close.

Mention of Schwarzkopf: another outright fan here, recently I got her 78s collection. I have never understood quite what causes the polarisation amongst listeners. Anyway....

Mike

[Ken B]

Mention of Schwarzkopf: another outright fan here, recently I got her 78s collection. I have never understood quite what causes the polarisation amongst listeners. Anyway....

I'm a fan too, mostly. Some superb Wolf lieder for instance. But once in a while, in later recordings I have sometimes found her tone harsh. That might explain part of it. But mostly I think it's because she joined the Nazi party in 1940 to get a job.

[knight66]

That may well be true, though Hotter was more the Nazi collaborator and he never came in for the personal criticism she got. Some people say they find her mannered or arch. I think that may spring from Legg's perfectionism where there would be a dozen takes and therefore people feel they detect a lack of spontaneity in her. I disagree. I have a live recital, it is very fine indeed, but I see no freshness that is superior to her studio output.

Apologies to diverge from Britten.

Mike

[Karl Henning]

Do you have an opinion on Paul Bunyan, Mike?

[Mirror Image]

Our Hunting Fathers: I would like to suggest this version to you with Heather Harper.
_{https://www.amazon.co.uk/Britten-Illuminations-Chansons-Francaises-Berceuse/dp/B01MQ61J6C/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1482482977&sr=8-3&keywords=Our+hunting+fathers+harper}


It is not easily available, only 2nd hand discs now come up;  but it is a good idea to keep an eye out for it at a reasonable price.

I can't generally deal with Pears's voice or mannerisms. Gomez was very good, but this live version has the edge. Harper has a silvery soprano voice and worked a lot with Britten. She is superb in all of the vocal pieces on the disc. All are amongst my favourite Britten. The Four French Songs were only published about 30 years ago despite them being written when Britten was about 14. They are heavily influenced by Debussy and are nothing to be ashamed of, seductive beauty and fundamental themes of childhood and loss are already present. From memory Gomez produced the premier recording of them.

Mike

Bostridge's take on Our Hunting Fathers is my favorite. I, too, am not a fan of Peter Pears' voice. Bostridge is possibly my favorite tenor to sing Britten's music.

[knight66]

Do you have an opinion on Paul Bunyan, Mike?

I don't have a copy of it. But I heard it when the first discs were issued. I quite enjoyed it, tuneful, light in tone. So not much of an opinion from me really. For some reason I have not been prompted to go back to it, should I Karl?

Mike

[Karl Henning]

In fairness, I should go back to it first, before enjoining you to, Mike.  But I fully intend to 

[knight66]

Bostridge's take on Our Hunting Fathers is my favorite. I, too, am not a fan of Peter Pears' voice. Bostridge is possibly my favorite tenor to sing Britten's music.

We all have a deaf ear for certain singers and Bostridge is one of mine. It could be that he is indeed excellent in that Britten and I do have him in several recordings. But I find, especially in German lieder that he prioritises the words over the line within the music and that breaking up of line does my head in. I have him in some HAndel and some Mozart and both are fine, but he was incidental. I have the Britten Canticles with Maltman and Daniels on the disc and he is good on that. It is my preferred version. But for Britten Tenor work, I look to see if there is an Anthony Rolfe Johnson version. His was a truly beautiful voice, with muscle and verbal acuity always within the musical line.

Mike

[Ken B]

By the by, I have a question about Britten someone here might be able to answer. I get the impression he lived rather openly with Pears as a couple. And was part of the Auden/Isherwood set, many rather  openly, if discretely, gay. Hysteria about gays comes and goes but from what happened to Turing I wonder how they survived the immediate post war era when it was high. Was there a double standard for "artists", or was Britten rich enough and in the right set?