Word: britten
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...William Walton stands second in England's current trinity of famous composers. Less prolific than either 80-year-old Ralph Vaughan Williams or 39-year-old Benjamin Britten, he has turned out some pieces (e.g., his Symphony and Viola Concerto) that are considered better than any of their more celebrated works. In the U.S. he is known for Façade, an impudent accompaniment for Edith Sitwell's eccentric verses; Belshazzar's Feast, a big dramatic choral work; and Orb and Sceptre, a grandiose march commissioned for the coronation. Visiting the U.S. with his Argentine born wife...
...Britten: Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge (Boyd Neel String Orchestra; London). Composed when he was 23, this work shows Britten's wit and enthusiasm at its best. Perhaps because it was inspired by a melodious theme of his teacher, Frank Bridge, it is also more tuneful than most latter-day Britten. Among its movements: a march, a Viennese waltz, a funeral march...
...occasion was a music festival run by Composer Benjamin Britten in Aide-burgh, 85 miles northeast of London. With Composer Britten conducting, Brain performed Haydn's First Concerto for Horn. The piece itself is not one of Haydn's most memorable,* but Brain's music poured out such glistening darts and gentle flutters of sound that the concerto seemed momentous. He conquered the opening and closing fast movements with sparkling virtuosity, and gave the slow middle movement a beautiful, butter-smooth tone. At the end, he took five bows before a roaring audience, then sat down...
British Composer Benjamin Britten announced in London that he had finished his new opera Gloriana, which will have its premiere in Covent Garden six days after the coronation. His next task, said Britten, is to locate a dozen trumpets and trumpeteers "who can look Elizabethan," since the opera is about the life of the first Queen Bess...
...usually drops the overtures and gets right into the story. When the shortening treatment was given to Benjamin Britten's Billy Budd last fall, critics congratulated NBC on having made Britten's four-acter more coherent and compelling than before...