British Music Collection - Benjamin Britten - Decca: 4737152 - download

Listen on Presto Music. Free thirty day trial. Find out more.

Just after Britten's performances were released on LP in 1971, the composer admitted with some pride that Sviatoslav Richter had learned his Piano Concerto 'entirely off his own bat', and had... — Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 More…

Release Date: 21st Mar 2003
Catalogue No: 4737152
Label: Decca
Series: British Music Collection
Length: 66 minutes

Building a Library

February 2010

First Choice

Britten: Piano Concerto, Op. 13

Work length34:03

$4.40

$6.00

Sviatoslav Richter (piano)
English Chamber Orchestra
Benjamin Britten
Recorded: 1970-12-06
Recording Venue: The Maltings, Snape

1. Toccata

Track length12:01

$1.10

$1.50

2. Waltz

Track length5:06

$1.10

$1.50

3. Impromptu

Track length8:06

$1.10

$1.50

4. March

Track length8:50

$1.10

$1.50

Britten: Violin Concerto in D minor Op. 15

Work length32:09

$3.30

$4.50

Mark Lubotsky (violin)
English Chamber Orchestra
Benjamin Britten
Recorded: 1970-07-29
Recording Venue: The Maltings, Snape

1. Moderato con moto

Track length9:16

$1.10

$1.50

2. Vivace

Track length9:18

$1.10

$1.50

3. Passacaglia; Andante lento

Track length13:35

$1.10

$1.50

Reviews
Explore

Reviews

2010

Just after Britten's performances were released on LP in 1971, the composer admitted with some pride that Sviatoslav Richter had learned his Piano Concerto 'entirely off his own bat', and had revealed a Russianness that was in the score.
Britten was attracted to Shostakovich during the late 1930s, when it was written, and the bravado, brittleness and flashy virtuosity of the writing, in the march-like finale most of all, at first caused many to be wary of it, even to think it somehow outside the composer's style. Now we know his music better, it's easier to accept, particularly in this sparkling yet sensitive performance.
The Violin Concerto dates from the following year, 1939, and it, too, has its self-conscious virtuosity, but it's its rich nostalgic lyricism which strikes to the heart and the quiet elegiac ending is unforgettable. Compared to Richter in the other work, Mark Lubotsky isn't always the master of its hair-raising difficulties, notably in the Scherzo, which has passages of double artificial harmonics that even Heifetz wanted simplified before he would play it (Britten refused), but this is still a lovely account. Fine recordings.

British Music Collection - Benjamin Britten

Downloads

Contents

Download queue