This is the Britten gift which entranced his contemporaries – ‘it’s so simple, so beautiful, why hasn’t anyone thought of it before?” Michael Kennedy sees Antique as ‘a setting which serves as an illustration of all that is meant by Britten’s magical ability to take the simplest means and transport the listener to a new musical world. Humphrey Carpenter highlights the opening Fanfare as ‘a pointer to the highly personal nature of what is to follow’, while Britten himself praises the text of Villes for its ‘very good depiction of the chaotic modern city life’ – something it is acknowledged he reflected in the music. ‘In Les illuminations one can hear (almost see) Britten changing from the pamphleteering protestor of 1938 into the more withdrawn, self-communing figure who exiled himself – perhaps, he thought then, for ever – to the New World’. While those statements might need to be read a few times to become clear, Kennedy’s other thoughts are more direct. ‘It would be truer to say that the language and imagery of the foreign poetry, notably Rimbaud’s prose-poetry with its hectic and fantastic pictures of life and vice in industrialized society, extended Britten’s range by stimulating his expressive facilities to match new regions of the emotional map’. ‘It has been said many times that Britten found his way to the operatic manner by clarifying his own style through his settings of English, French and Italian poetry’, he writes in his biography of Britten. Michael Kennedy sees it as another stage in his development as an operatic composer. The cycle is highly regarded by many Britten observers and scholars, and has become a favourite of the soprano repertoire. He did not hear the first performance, given in London by dedicatee Sophie Wyss on 30 January 1940, with Boyd Neel and his string orchestra.Īlthough Britten did not compose Les illuminations for Peter Pears, the tenor sang it on many occasions, and the song Being beauteous became the first instance where feelings between the two were expressed in a firm dedication of music, although it should be pointed out the music itself was initially written with Wulff Scherchen still in Britten’s mind! The collection of songs had a complicated genesis for Britten, who wrote some in London and completed the cycle in the USA. Britten was still settling in the US, while Arthur Rimbaud was adjusting to London – and the experience of city life leaves its mark on the often restless writing. With thanks to Decca.īoth composer and poet were adjusting to new environments when Les illuminations was published. Meanwhile the below clips are all of Sir Peter Pears, singing while Britten himself conducts the English Chamber Orchestra. The NMC recording of Sandrine Piau and the Northern Sinfonia with Thomas Zehetmair includes the three discarded numbers. Of the three song cycles that Britten composed Les Illuminations lies the closest to Ian Bostridge’s heart: “It cost me quite a lot of time and work to make the score my own, but it’s now one of the works in which I feel most at home, despite Rimbaud’s sombre and often impenetrable texts.Les illuminations, Op.18 – songs for high voice and orchestra (March – 25 October 1939, Britten aged 25)ĭiscarded Numbers (edited by Colin Matthews)ĭiscarded: Un prince était vexé (unfinished) Ian Bostridge, one of the world’s most famous tenors, made his debut with the Concertgebouworkest in 2000.
Of the three song cycles that Britten composed Les Illuminations lies the closest to Ian Bostridge’s heart: “It cost me quite a lot of time and work to make the score my own, but it’s now one of the works in which I feel most at home, despite Rimbaud’s sombre and often impenetrable texts.” It’s a hybrid piece, highly surrealistic and evocative – it’s like being on an emotional journey through a dream world.” Ian Bostridge, tenor The male voice is better suited to the characteristic vaudeville-like side of the music. Bostridge: “The music sounds earthier when a tenor sings it. Ian Bostridge finds that they nevertheless work as a cycle, thanks to Britten’s brilliant settings, originally composed for soprano. The songs vary greatly in atmosphere, tempo, key and length. Benjamin Britten set his Les Illuminations to prose texts and poems by Arthur Rimbaud.
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