Word: britten
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...best indicator of success: Lees is published by England's influential Boosey and Hawkes (publisher of Richard Strauss, Bartok, Stravinsky, Copland). The publishers chose him while scouting around for a young man who could deliver successful works as consistently as has the star discovery of their stable, Benjamin Britten. It may well be that Lees is their...
...excellent diction. I was able to understand almost every word they sang, despite the barn-like acoustics of the Union. A lovely French carol, Le Miracle de Saint Nicholas, was especially well articulated by the Radcliffe Chorus and six soloists. Among the modern pieces which Radcliffe performed were Britten's exquisite Balulalow, originally written for children's voices, and Christmas Bell by Thomas Beveridge '59. Beveridge combined modal harmony to a nicely vocal melody but, for the only time during the concert, the singers' intonation was somewhat faulty. Radcliffe sang Vaughan Williams' Winter, and the chorus' cleanest attacks...
...loud. Radcliffe's precise production of each type keeps the quieter music always vivid and makes for unusually brilliant climaxes. Above all, the Choral Society aims to entertain its audience; if their zeal occasionally sacrifices subtlety or stylistic nuance, it is worth the loss--this became particularly apparent in Britten's carol There Is No Rose...
...ancient Troy) was lusty, but the heavily sweet music resembled Walton's lyrical Viola Concerto more than his uproarious Belshazzar's Feast. The London Times called it "a great tragic opera," and the Daily Express hailed "the proudest hour for British music since the premiere of Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes." Sir William made his own evaluation: "It won't please the highbrows . . . no atonal stuff." Moreover, he liked opera so much that he was off violin sonatas and string quartets for a while. Said he: "It's things like this opera that bring...
...seemed fairly baffled by the refined music and the obscure Jamesian plot, made no clearer by the strange language (the libretto, by Welsh-English Writer Myfanwy Piper, was sung in English). But the audience politely brought the fine English cast back for eight curtain calls. Wrotem Il Tempo of Britten's score: "A type of anthology of modern musical taste." Corriere della Sera applauded Britten's "sinister castle of sounds," but found it "difficult to establish even approximately what the new opera is meant to signify...