Benjamin Britten
- Author: Oliver, Michael
As a series, Phaidon's 20th Century Composers has brought remarkable variety and a welter of information, both necessary and delightfully trivial. Intended both for the general reader and for...
Benjamin Britten
- Author: Oliver, Michael
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As a series, Phaidon's 20th Century Composers has brought remarkable variety and a welter of information, both necessary and delightfully trivial. Intended both for the general reader and for...
About
Benjamin Britten (1913–76) was the greatest English composer of his time, and the first of his generation to enjoy a wide international reputation. With the great success of Peter Grimes (1945), he effectively re-invented English opera and was a pioneer of music for film and radio. His monumental War Requiem reached a wider audience than any other choral work of the century. In this masterly biography, the author creates a portrait of a great artist, exploring his wide-ranging compositions in detail and discussing the many contradictions that pervaded Britten's fascinating life and career.
Contents
- A time there was
- striking out on a path of his own
- reputation growing steadily
- inclined to speak of Europe in the past tense
- I am native, rooted here: too much success
- the big chariot
- my subject is war, and the pity of war
- aschenbach
- classified list of works.
Awards and reviews
As a series, Phaidon's 20th Century Composers has brought remarkable variety and a welter of information, both necessary and delightfully trivial. Intended both for the general reader and for the more enthusiatically musical
