Word: britten
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...stopped paying attention to new classical music after Britten and Shostakovich died, it's time to tune in again. The famous flutist has put his weight behind one of America's most gifted "new tonalist" composers, with electrifying results. Liebermann's three concertos are custom-made for listeners who find 12-tone music ugly and minimalism simple-minded. The harmonies are savory, the scoring luminous--and, yes, you can hum the tunes...
...Ponnelle led to her 1986 European debut at Venice's Teatro la Fenice, and her work is now seen regularly at London's Covent Garden and Paris' Bastille Opera, as well as in such American cities as Houston, where her joltingly fresh takes on Puccini's Madama Butterfly and Britten's Billy Budd opened back to back in January...
...couple of the best songs on 10, "The Only Sounds" and "If I Never See You Again," slow and elegant yet distinctly alive, arose from Wet Wet Wet's first collaboration with the celebrated songwriting team of Graham Lyle and Terry Britten. The strengths of these songs are their melodies, smooth and irresistible, taking Wet Wet Wet's relationship with the slow song a step beyond what they achieved with their number one single "Love is All Around," from the soundtrack of Four Weddings and a Funeral...
From the moment that pianist Suzanne MacAllister stepped on stage and began to play "Infant Holy, Infant Lowly," the Radcliffe Choral Society impressed with its delivery and precision. In Benjamin Britten's "Missa Brevis in D," the women, under the direction of Marvin, achieved a beautiful blend of harmonies and melodic progressions. It is a difficult piece, but the group pulled it off with wonderful mastery--particularly in the "Sanctus," with its unusual layering of voices progressing up a scale. Alto soloist Kate Kraft acquitted herself well in this movement...
After the communal carol "O Come, All Ye Faithful," associate conductor Constance DeFotis led the Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum in the "Hymn to St. Cecilia" by Benjamin Britten. This piece takes its lyrics from a W.H. Auden poem of the same title; and like the poem, the music contains surprises and irregularities, yet maintains a lyric quality. True to the refrain, "Blessed Cecilia, appear in visions/ To all musicians, appear and inspire:/ Translated Daughter, come down and startle/ Composing mortals with immortal fire," it seemed that St. Cecilia had indeed come down to bless this performance, for the Collegium Musicum...