Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)
Sinfonia da Requiem, Op. 20
Winter Words, Op. 52 (orch. Robin Holloway)
The Prince of the Pagodas, Op. 57 (abr. Edward Gardner)
London Philharmonic Orchestra/Edward Gardner
Nicky Spence (tenor)
rec. live, 2022, Royal Festival Hall, London (Sinfonia and The Prince of the Pagodas); 
2021, Saffron Hall, Saffron Walden
Texts provided
Reviewed as a download
London Philharmonic Orchestra LPO-0134 [65]

To celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the LPO record label there have of late been some interesting releases conducted by their current chief conductor, Edward Gardner. I reviewed the Dvořák/Schumann disc recently and my colleague John Quinn wrote favourably about a Rachmaninov release before that (review). The disc I have been absorbed with this week is an all-Britten affair. Gardner has always had an attraction to the composer and as well as his magnificent account on record of Peter Grimes, recorded in 2019 (review) he has three Chandos discs in the catalogue as well as mementos of his The Turn of the Screw at Glyndebourne and the Death in Venice with which he opened his tenure at the ENO. Opus Arte’s Blu-ray/DVD is a recording of the 2013 revival, rather than the 2007 first performances (review). The current record from the LPO contains three works in recent live recordings, all of which shine brightly and have much to commend them.

Britten’s Sinfonia da Requiem dates from 1940. The story of its genesis is well-known: rejected by its commissioners, the Imperial Japanese State, for its overtly Christian headings and for being too gloomy and melancholy, it was first played by Barbirolli with his NYPSO in 1941 (review). Britten himself made two records of the work in the studio. The first one is less-well- known and the better of the two. On one side of Decca LXT 2981 the Danish State Radio Symphony Orchestra play the piece in a super performance from September 1953; I believe it has been re-issued on the Eloquence label. It may seem perverse to use this seventy-year-old venerable LP to compare Gardner’s new Hi-Res recording, but I believe that Gardner is well aware of Britten’s recorded legacy and feel sure he must have studied it to some degree.

For me there is something special about this Decca mono record that marks it apart from the later stereo version from eleven years later. The Danish State RSO was a crack ensemble, trained by the likes of Malko and Busch with star names in its wind and brass sections. They made some magnificent records in the late 1940s and early 50s. Britten is faster in the work than he would be in London with timings of 8:14/5:19/6:09. Gardner is even sprightlier, running in at 7:16/5:08/5:43. His opening Lacrymosa has a real forward drive. The movement is based on three motivic themes which we hear in Gardner’s record at 00:32 (the cello theme, eventually answered by a bassoon), 01:40 (cue 3 in the score: a saxophone making a rising interval) and 03:08 (just after cue 5: sombre trombone chords answered by flutes). After these ideas have been laid out, there is some development (this is a kind-of symphony after all) before we start the crescendo. This is extended and masterly in the build-up of tension. The climax is impressive.

Dies Irae, follows without a break. The LPO winds and horns match their illustrious Danish predecessors at every turn. Special mentions must be made of the saxophonist Martin Robertson and principal trumpet Paul Beniston. What about those horns as well? The LPO’s precision of ensemble and their virtuosity are notable. The final movement of the great work begins slowly and in calm. Britten calls it Requiem aeternam. The lovely tune is intoned on flutes. The strings counter with a divine flowing theme that is just radiant. How consoling and beautiful this music is; remarkably, Britten was only twenty-six years of age. For me, this piece and the Symphonic Dances of Rachmaninov are the standout works of that troubled year of 1940. Funnily enough, I think both composers were staying on Long Island, NY as they wrote their music. I wonder if they ever met.

Gardner’s reading of the piece is one to savour. It has not been set down as much as you might think but most recently it was recorded by Rattle and Gražinytė-Tyla. This one is right up there with the best, if not displacing for me the original Britten. Next is something very interesting, the song-cycle Winter Words, but in a new orchestral arrangement made by Robin Holloway and receiving its first performance here. The songs on poems of Thomas Hardy were first sung by Peter Pears at Harewood House near Leeds in 1953. In the liner notes, Holloway writes that Hardy and Britten are made for each other. He draws out the poems’ language of nature, seasons, humanity, satire, pessimism, even. Britten could definitely relate to all those topics, I concur. Holloway’s orchestration is on the smaller scale, modest, discrete and, I feel, totally appropriate to these pieces. There are eight songs in all. 

In Nicky Spence we have a soloist who places the poetry first and foremost. He is a natural storyteller and his diction is excellent. His tenor is in fine mettle and vocally he meets the demands most assuredly. The second song: Midnight on the Great Western is a great place to sample him. The orchestration in this song is wonderful, too, led by the winds, it sounds perfectly balanced and just right for this song. Holloway’s writing for strings in the next song offers perfect contrast and is again ideal for the satire of Wagtail and baby. Perhaps the most famous setting in Winter Words is The Choirmaster’s Burial. The organ-like wind chords accompanying the singer are perhaps what we might have expected but this extended ballad needs variety, and we get it here. Nicky Spence is wonderful in his long tale and once you hear this inspired arrangement, it may be hard to go back to the piano version. The cycle ends with the song: Before Life and After. This is my personal favourite of the eight. I was not disappointed. This singer has given us plenty of English song on record. There are also some very recommendable discs he has made in other languages, like his Hyperion Janáček disc for instance. Don’t forget his Gerontius either. That one, like this, is a must hear. Coming very soon (in fact I have an advance copy that I will review anon) is a new CD on Chandos that Nicky Spence has made with pianist Dylan Perez. It is full of Czech and Slovak art songs by Dvořák, Kaprálová and others. They are typical of this singer, of whom we should be very proud.

Gardner’s excellent new Britten disc concludes with a suite he made during lockdown of The Prince of the Pagodas. This full-length ballet was premiered by Sadler’s Wells ballet at Covent Garden on New Years’ Day 1957 with Britten in the pit. Britten had wanted Charles Mackerras to have the premiere (after another option, Ansermet had definitively pulled out), but the house insisted he conduct. It was revived there over the next few seasons, but Britten didn’t conduct it anymore, that assignment being carried out by Robert Irving or Hugo Rignold. Britten did return to it at La Scala, however, but after a few years the work rather faded. In 1989, Kenneth MacMillan directed a new production in which the young Darcy Bussell featured. This put it in people’s minds again and came at the same time as a new recording on Virgin Classics led by Oliver Knussen. I have had this set since the early 1990s; it is a brilliant recording of a much-underrated ballet. I was rather underwhelmed and disappointed by the recent Hallé version (review). 

Gardner’s 26-minute suite begins with the prelude. We get four minutes in the Emperor’s Palace of Act 1. Most of the music sampled is for Belle Rose on her journey to the Pagoda Land and in the Kingdom itself. The final seven minutes are from Act 3; we hear the pas de deux and the finale. The Balinese gamelan-inspired music is first heard in the Kingdom (track 7). Much has been written about Britten’s inspiration for this. It is worth remembering, though, that in January 1955, just as he was starting to write The Prince of the Pagodas, he performed Poulenc’s Concerto for Two Pianos with the Frenchman at the Royal Festival Hall in London. That work, written in 1932 has definite gamelan shades; Poulenc having heard the instrument and been struck deeply by its sound possibilities at the 1931 Exposition Coloniale de Paris. Gardner and the LPO are most impressive for me in the last two numbers from the final act. The fast moving, big-toned sound they produce is impressive and the sonics engineered by Deborah Spanton and her team at K&A Productions is vivid. The suite ends with a splendid Tchaikovskian waltz; it is full-bodied, played with total conviction and immaculately graded. We hear applause after the final flourish that is richly deserved, I think.

Having lavished praise on the performance, less than 30-minutes of the ballet won’t, I’m afraid, do to give you a sense of its huge worth and enormous richness. For that, you need the Knussen recording, or Britten’s old vintage Decca records made with Kubelík’s Covent Garden orchestra. Yes, it is cut slightly, but the records are still wonderful and having been made during the initial world premiere run itself, they are hugely important to the discography of the piece. 

These three Britten pieces taken as a whole, make a first-class program, nonetheless. Winter Words in the new Robin Holloway will I hope, be taken on by other tenors and feature in concert programming, fingers crossed. The new Sinfonia da Requiem is a top contender in modern sound. This is another recommendable title in the LPO’s growing catalogue.

Philip Harrison 

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