Young Apollo, Op. 16, is a music composition for piano, string quartet and string orchestra composed by Benjamin Britten.
Commissioned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the work was completed in 1939, just after Britten's arrival in the United States. It carries as an epigraph the final lines of "Hyperion", an incomplete poem by John Keats [1] but the work was inspired by Wulff Scherchen, a young, German blond who was Britten's first love interest.
The work premiered on 27 August 1939 on CBC Radio's Melodic Strings with Britten as soloist and Alexander Chuhaldin conducting. Britten dedicated the work to Chuhaldin. [2] The composer withdrew the work following a second performance on 20 December in New York, without explanation. It was not performed again until 1979 [3] when it was revived at that year's Aldeburgh Festival, with Steuart Bedford conducting the English Chamber Orchestra and Michael Roll as soloist.
Young Apollo first appeared on disc three years later, with Peter Donohoe as soloist, and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Simon Rattle.
The War Requiem, Op. 66, is a choral and orchestral composition by Benjamin Britten, composed mostly in 1961 and completed in January 1962. The War Requiem was performed for the consecration of the new Coventry Cathedral, in the English county of Warwickshire, which was built after the original fourteenth-century structure was destroyed in a World War II bombing raid. The traditional Latin texts are interspersed, in telling juxtaposition, with extra-liturgical poems by Wilfred Owen, written during World War I.
Stuart Oliver Knussen was a British composer of contemporary classical music and conductor. Among the most influential British composers of his generation, his relatively few compositions are "rooted in 20th-century modernism, [but] beholden to no school but his own"
Thomas Joseph Edmund Adès is a British composer, pianist and conductor. Five compositions by Adès received votes in the 2017 Classic Voice poll of the greatest works of art music since 2000: The Tempest (2004), Violin Concerto (2005), Tevot (2007), In Seven Days (2008), and Polaris (2010).
Peter Manning FRSA is a British conductor and violinist.
Spring Symphony is a choral symphony by Benjamin Britten, his Opus 44. The work is scored for soprano, alto and tenor soloists, mixed choir, boys' choir and orchestra. Britten used texts of several poems related to spring, mostly from the 16th and 17th centuries and also one by W. H. Auden. Britten dedicated the work to Serge Koussevitzky and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The work received its premiere in the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam on 14 July 1949 as part of the Holland Festival
Diversions for Piano Left Hand and Orchestra, Op. 21, is a concertante music composition by Benjamin Britten.
Brian Elias is a British composer.
Louis Boyd Neel O.C. was an English, and later Canadian conductor and academic. He was Dean of the Royal Conservatory of Music at the University of Toronto. Neel founded and conducted chamber orchestras, and contributed to the revival of interest in baroque music and in the 19th and 20th Century string orchestra repertoire.
Antonio Brosa was a Spanish violinist, mostly active in the UK.
The Wiener Singakademie is a choir in Vienna, Austria.
Andrew Shulman is an English virtuoso cellist, conductor and composer. He is currently the principal cellist of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and maintains his cello studio at the University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music in Los Angeles, California.
Cecil Aronowitz was a British viola player, a founding member of the Melos Ensemble, a leading chamber musician, and an influential teacher at the Royal College of Music and the Royal Northern College of Music.
Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge, Op. 10, is a work for string orchestra by Benjamin Britten. It was written in 1937 at the request of Boyd Neel, who conducted his orchestra at the premiere of the work at that year's Salzburg Festival. It was the work that brought Britten to international attention.
Alexander Gregorovitch Chuhaldin was a Russian violinist, conductor, composer, and music educator who later emigrated to Canada. He spent his early career working in his native country but after 1927 he was active in Canada. His compositional output includes over 30 works for string orchestra; many of which were published by Carl Fischer Music. He also composed five pieces for solo violin which were published by Paling & Co in Australia and more recently by Thompson Publishing Group in Canada.
Albert Pratz was a Canadian violinist, conductor, composer, and music educator. He was awarded the Canadian Centennial Medal in 1967. His compositional output was modest and consists of only instrumental works. Some of his compositions, such as Melanie Waltz (1956) and A Tango (1957), were recorded by the CBC Symphony Orchestra; of which he was concertmaster from 1953 to 1961. He worked in the same capacity for the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra from 1966 to 1969, and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra from 1970 to 1979. He was also active as a teacher, both privately and at a number of universities, and made recordings as both a violinist and conductor.
Benjamin Britten's Violin Concerto, Op. 15, was written from 1938 to 1939 and dedicated to Henry Boys, his former teacher at the Royal College of Music. Britten worked on it while staying with Aaron Copland and completed it in Quebec. It was premiered in New York on 29 March 1940 by the Spanish violinist Antonio Brosa with the New York Philharmonic conducted by John Barbirolli. A year after its first performance in New York, the concerto was performed for the first time in England at Queen’s Hall on 6 April 1941. It was conducted by Basil Cameron, and the soloist was Thomas Matthews, leader of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. It received its first broadcast performance with the BBC Orchestra, conducted by Clarence Raybould and Thomas Matthews as soloist, on 28 April 1941.
Les Illuminations, Op. 18, is a song cycle by Benjamin Britten, first performed in 1940. It is composed for soprano or tenor soloist and string orchestra, and sets verse and prose poems written in 1872–1873 by Arthur Rimbaud, part of his collection Les Illuminations.
Cantata misericordium, op. 69, is a 1963 musical composition by British composer Benjamin Britten. Its single movement is based on the parable of the Good Samaritan with a Latin text by Patrick Wilkinson, and was composed for the centenary of the Red Cross. It is scored for solo tenor and baritone, SATB choir, string quartet, string orchestra, piano, harp, and timpani.
John Woolford was the muse, confidant, and the first romantic interest of the composer Benjamin Britten.