oh Jeez, I can't stop, Dennis Brain!@!!!!! never forget the photo of his mangled Horn after the accident that took him. thanks to these three Brain, Britten and Pears!!!!! DG
I used this at my Father's memorial service. It was my parents favourite piece of music when they were young. My Mother has just died of Covid and I will use this in memory of her too. Magnificent!
Dear Abigail, I am very sorry to hear of your losing your mother. Your father`s memorial service, a most moving occasion anyway, must have been enhanced by the choice of this work, which he and your mother loved so much. When we lost one of our members of the Redbridge Youth Orchestra, (he lost his life drowning on Scottish Loch in the mid seventies), there was a concert to remember him using this suite. The part that I have always found embedded in my memory, is the horn in "The Sick Rose" movement, playing all those descending semitones - such a simple thing - yet so compelling on the listener`s emotions - especially at the end where the player does a final glissando ascent to return to the major very slowly. All my best wishes. B.W.
Hall again- sorry - I meant to say that Chris was actually a horn player in the Youth Orchestra and had been a member of the national Youth Orchestra as well. I last saw him at the Youth Orchestra course that was held in Aldeburgh in 1973. We used to have a week of rehearsals finishing with a concert at the Maltings, in Snape. Thank you for sharing your memory. B.W.
I have an early recording of this w PP, Dennis Brain & BB conducting. Pears was all of 32 years old, Britten 28! Despite the lack of clarity at times, & even Pears’ not yet totally mastered technique, his open-throated beauty of tone are unmatched. It is a miracle. I love it. I love this wonderful interpretation w phrasing to die for too! PS. It is indeed a pure masterpiece.
All I have to hear are those first beckonings from the hills darkening in the fainting sun, and I am home....home again, in tears and gratitude, immeasurable gratitude, to Dennis Brain, to Peter Pears and above all, to Benjamin Britten . My own day's gown old; this gives me rest. Thank you for posting, incontrario motu.
Thank you for this emotionally rich response. On TH-cam I happened by chance on the Robert Tear performance, which on first hearing is right up there beside, or close to, this recording, which I've owned for years (Tears's newer recording has the advantage of greater sonic clarity, especially of the instruments). Hearing this again reminded me why I rank Britten as one of the two or three greatest (with Bartok and maybe Shostakovich) twentieth-century composers. Yet, since I "discovered" Britten more than 40 years ago--so soon before he died; I was 34 then, had already found Bartok at age 14--and was inspired by the song cycle "Nocturne" to try my hand at composing for voice, I have found that I listen to Britten less and less. That is because, after a few years, I discerned in almost all his music a sorrow dark and deep, conveyed subtly, I don't know how, that seems unassuagable. Having become aware of it, I have a hard time listening to his music. Yet he wrote so much of the greatest I've ever heard: musically so satisfying yet complex, intriguing, surprising. He wrote the only two operas--I'm generally not a fan--that I've listened to repeatedly: "Bllly Budd" and "Death in Venice." Yet they too are ridden by grief. As is this piece, I feel, though the second poem, Tennyson's "Nocturne," is the most ecstatic love song I've ever heard. So I must give thanks for hearing this piece and being brought back to him; now I must listen to some Britten afresh.
@@RichardASalisbury1 I never feel but exhilarated after listening to this (you are right, ofc) or Les Illuminations, sung by a soprano (as BB originally & rightly, I believe, intended), preferably Anne Catherine Gillet (the best I have ever heard, BB would have fallen in love w her flawless interpretation, vocal technique & pronunciation it does count, esp here w Rimbaud!), but also Heather Harper, Felicity Lott & other, younger voices of today (such as Gillet). I also love his Spring Symphony, Noye’s Fludde, A Ceremony of Carols, A Simple Symphony, the Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo, the Four Sea Interludes, Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, & his Purcell Realisations, as well as his two operas A Midsummer Night’s Dream & The Turn of the Screw, despite the latter’s downright miserableness. All of these & some of his folk songs pay back in full delight his intrinsic darkness. Try a few of these again, maybe?
This is the soundtrack to my life and truly gets me through each day, dissolves stress and soothes for all its night and darkness themes. I love the Bostridge and Spence versions also but it’s Brittain, Brain and Pears who are my earworms
This is one of the great masterpieces of 20th-century music and one of the great text settings every composed in one of its very greatest performances. It's thrilling to have access to it on TH-cam.
I have the original LP of this recording... sadly it's very scratched now though from over-use. Yes, it's wonderful to have access to a perfect recording of this beautiful piece of work!
Having lived & loved this masterwork for over half a century . . . . . .as well as knowing most if not all recorded versions , I can say without any doubt whatever that this the finest !. P. Pears still had a voice here that avoided the harshness on louder passages that would later arrive. . . . .as well as his always keen insights . . . . . . Dennis Brain just got extraordinarily better as he mastered this work. . .. . and his playing here if from the Gods . . . . . . . ., period. . . .!!! Stunning in every way. . . . . .!!!
Even with the known limitations of recordings of this period, Dennis Brain's absolutely mastery and magnificent tone come shining through. Bravo to all involved.
yes, we performed this masterwork at WWU Bellingham WA....back in the 70s? Richard Goldner (AUS) was our mentor in this, the most difficult orchestral piece ever for me.....He and Charmian Gadd put together the greatest presentation ever of Musicians from Indiana University incl Janos Starker (performing with Charmian the Kodaly duo and the Brahms double. Most memorable event of my career!!!!! Douglas Gunderson viola, piano, organ, guitar, recorders etc. love to hear from you!
Dennis Brain and Peter Pears are absolutely outsatnding in that beaautiful and typical piece of Britten. The call of horn at the beginning of the piece gives the general mood.
What an exquisite work! Have never heard it before. Sooo glad to have found and heard it. I LOVE Britten's music! Especially when sung by Peter Pears! Bravo!
Fascinating to hear this live performance, having grown up with the earlier 1944 one with Britten conducting the Boyd Neel Orchestra. There are some crackles on that recording but it is interesting to hear the interpretation when the music was recently composed and Pears is in much more youthful voice than here.
It took me a long while to appreciate Pears' voice, to which I was hitherto averse, but nowadays I find it highly distinctive and a lovely instrument. Clearly, his extraordinary timbre inspired some of the most ambitious writing by Britten.
I heard him live in 1970 (Winterreise and Winter Words) and his actual voice lacked the "edge" that makes many people dislike it. It seems to be an artifact of the recording process.
My story too. I was introduced to this extraordinary music by my beloved father when I was a small child. For me this has to be the definitive recording and I can disregard the less than perfect sound quality we have come to expect these days. An extremely difficult piece technically for both soloists and many have achieved equal technical perfection subsequently, but for me, none have done it with more heart. This piece has profoundly affected me my whole life long. What a joy to find it on TH-cam for everyone to enjoy.
Along with many struggles involved in my 65 years of horn playing, what an honor it has been to be able to perform this piece.....if only once...(Meadowbrook Summer Festival 1968)
Maybe a sign of academic decline but I did for A Level in 1980. :) I was no world beater academically but this piece landed on the bullseye of my heart. I had no trouble appreciating how good it was which I think is a reflection of its quality. Also, my word, we've had some good poets haven't we?
I studied this in Australia for the equivalent of O Levels (year 11) in 1987. :) It still gives me chills. The interpretion of Tennyson's poetry to music is sublime. One year earlier, in 4th Form in the U.K. we studied 'Starlight Express' and some man came to the school to teach us how to write a pop song by rhyming 'dance' with 'romance'. 😆
Sehr authentische live Aufführung dieses perfekt komponierten Meisterwerks mit mildem Ton des Horns, klarer Stimme des Tenors und seidigen Töne der Streichinstrumente. Der geniale Dirigent leitet alles im veränderlichen Tempo mit effektiv kontrollierter Dynamik. Die Tonqualität ist auch ziemlich hoch als eine Aufnahme von sechzig Jahre vor zur Zeit des Hochladens. Alles ist wunderbar!
Here is a studio recording [with subtitles] of the Serenade also also featuring Peter Pears and Dennis Brain and also recorded in 1953. th-cam.com/play/PLVUIaMDAYwqhtAPd7rCopj4wrlj3ZvXHV.html
The Wikipedia entry for this piece has both a list and the texts of all the poems in this piece: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serenade_for_Tenor,_Horn_and_Strings
I am sitting her, imitating a French Horn, like the daft eleven-year-old I once was. I got thumped then but I was at least in key, according to my music teacher, a Miss Perfect from Leeds. I'm 53 now and nothing has changed - I'm still in key - though the fist is sadly no longer with us.
yes I got into the (?) later Barry Tuckwell recording in the 1970s as a teenager in Australia. I couldn't believe this work when I heard it. I was transported (no ancestral puns intended) and my life changed I guess. And then I heard Vaughan-Williams' "Fantasia"... et voila!
Et voilà quoi? Pardon me, but I don’t know what you are getting at? Do you hear Britten in VW or the contrary? Or are you saying something completely other?
@@brookeggleston9314 , haha! A lot of hornists could do (and have done) much worse than trying to channel Dennis Brain! Tuckwell, of course, had his own voice when he wasn't doing that.
Britten asks the horn player to use only natural harmonics in the prologue and epilogue. This makes it sound rather eerie and gives the impression that the notes are out of tune, but they are not.
oh Jeez, I can't stop, Dennis Brain!@!!!!! never forget the photo of his mangled Horn after the accident that took him. thanks to these three
Brain, Britten and Pears!!!!! DG
I used this at my Father's memorial service. It was my parents favourite piece of music when they were young. My Mother has just died of Covid and I will use this in memory of her too. Magnificent!
Dear Abigail, I am very sorry to hear of your losing your mother. Your father`s memorial service, a most moving occasion anyway, must have been enhanced by the choice of this work, which he and your mother loved so much. When we lost one of our members of the Redbridge Youth Orchestra, (he lost his life drowning on Scottish Loch in the mid seventies), there was a concert to remember him using this suite. The part that I have always found embedded in my memory, is the horn in "The Sick Rose" movement, playing all those descending semitones - such a simple thing - yet so compelling on the listener`s emotions - especially at the end where the player does a final glissando ascent to return to the major very slowly. All my best wishes. B.W.
Hall again- sorry - I meant to say that Chris was actually a horn player in the Youth Orchestra and had been a member of the national Youth Orchestra as well. I last saw him at the Youth Orchestra course that was held in Aldeburgh in 1973. We used to have a week of rehearsals finishing with a concert at the Maltings, in Snape. Thank you for sharing your memory. B.W.
@@darkgreenambulance Thank you so much for your kind words - yes, I so agree with your every word!
@Abigail... you have had a rough time. My thoughts are w you... even now. Hope you found peace.
All my sympathy Abigail. What a magnificent tribute to your parents.
I have an early recording of this w PP, Dennis Brain & BB conducting. Pears was all of 32 years old, Britten 28! Despite the lack of clarity at times, & even Pears’ not yet totally mastered technique, his open-throated beauty of tone are unmatched. It is a miracle. I love it. I love this wonderful interpretation w phrasing to die for too! PS. It is indeed a pure masterpiece.
All I have to hear are those first beckonings from the hills darkening in the fainting sun, and I am home....home again, in tears and gratitude, immeasurable gratitude, to Dennis Brain, to Peter Pears and above all, to Benjamin Britten . My own day's gown old; this gives me rest. Thank you for posting, incontrario motu.
Thank you for this emotionally rich response. On TH-cam I happened by chance on the Robert Tear performance, which on first hearing is right up there beside, or close to, this recording, which I've owned for years (Tears's newer recording has the advantage of greater sonic clarity, especially of the instruments). Hearing this again reminded me why I rank Britten as one of the two or three greatest (with Bartok and maybe Shostakovich) twentieth-century composers. Yet, since I "discovered" Britten more than 40 years ago--so soon before he died; I was 34 then, had already found Bartok at age 14--and was inspired by the song cycle "Nocturne" to try my hand at composing for voice, I have found that I listen to Britten less and less. That is because, after a few years, I discerned in almost all his music a sorrow dark and deep, conveyed subtly, I don't know how, that seems unassuagable. Having become aware of it, I have a hard time listening to his music. Yet he wrote so much of the greatest I've ever heard: musically so satisfying yet complex, intriguing, surprising. He wrote the only two operas--I'm generally not a fan--that I've listened to repeatedly: "Bllly Budd" and "Death in Venice." Yet they too are ridden by grief. As is this piece, I feel, though the second poem, Tennyson's "Nocturne," is the most ecstatic love song I've ever heard. So I must give thanks for hearing this piece and being brought back to him; now I must listen to some Britten afresh.
@@RichardASalisbury1 I never feel but exhilarated after listening to this (you are right, ofc) or Les Illuminations, sung by a soprano (as BB originally & rightly, I believe, intended), preferably Anne Catherine Gillet (the best I have ever heard, BB would have fallen in love w her flawless interpretation, vocal technique & pronunciation it does count, esp here w Rimbaud!), but also Heather Harper, Felicity Lott & other, younger voices of today (such as Gillet). I also love
his Spring Symphony, Noye’s Fludde, A Ceremony of Carols, A Simple Symphony, the Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo, the Four Sea Interludes, Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, & his Purcell Realisations, as well as his two operas A Midsummer Night’s Dream & The Turn of the Screw, despite the latter’s downright miserableness. All of these & some of his folk songs pay back in full delight his intrinsic darkness. Try a few of these again, maybe?
There aren't too many pieces you can immediately call from the first two tones. Indeed one of the great works of the 20th century.
This is the soundtrack to my life and truly gets me through each day, dissolves stress and soothes for all its night and darkness themes. I love the Bostridge and Spence versions also but it’s Brittain, Brain and Pears who are my earworms
Excellently bright! ✨️
This is one of the great masterpieces of 20th-century music and one of the great text settings every composed in one of its very greatest performances. It's thrilling to have access to it on TH-cam.
I have the original LP of this recording... sadly it's very scratched now though from over-use. Yes, it's wonderful to have access to a perfect recording of this beautiful piece of work!
The music gorgeous. Peter Pears is sublime here. Unmatched.
Having lived & loved this masterwork for over half a century . . . . . .as well as knowing most if not all recorded versions , I can say without any doubt whatever that this the finest !. P. Pears still had a voice here that avoided the harshness on louder passages that would later arrive. . . . .as well as his always keen insights . . . . . . Dennis Brain just got extraordinarily better as he mastered this work. . .. . and his playing here if from the Gods . . . . . . . ., period. . . .!!! Stunning in every way. . . . . .!!!
At 97 years of age this masterly horn playing still gives me the horn, as in Pete and Dud's routine.
Dennis Brain - magician! This is a great recording of a 20th century masterpiece.
Every note in every poem is perfect. A masterpiece.
Even with the known limitations of recordings of this period, Dennis Brain's absolutely mastery and magnificent tone come shining through. Bravo to all involved.
yes, we performed this masterwork at WWU Bellingham WA....back in the 70s? Richard Goldner (AUS) was our mentor in this, the most difficult orchestral piece ever for me.....He and Charmian Gadd put together the greatest presentation ever of Musicians from Indiana University incl
Janos Starker (performing with Charmian the Kodaly duo and the Brahms double. Most memorable event of my career!!!!! Douglas Gunderson
viola, piano, organ, guitar, recorders etc. love to hear from you!
hauntingly beautiful.
Compelling and unrivalled
Dennis Brain and Peter Pears are absolutely outsatnding in that beaautiful and typical piece of Britten. The call of horn at the beginning of the piece gives the general mood.
Pure magic - a true masterpiece!
What an exquisite work! Have never heard it before. Sooo glad to have found and heard it. I LOVE Britten's music! Especially when sung by Peter Pears! Bravo!
I've always loved it, no other version comes close. Wonderful melancholy and grace. Thanks for putting it up...
yes, listening to this very record was one of my earliest memories
An enigmatic couple if there ever was one. Exquisite, hauntingly beautiful work. Pears is inimitable.
Fascinating to hear this live performance, having grown up with the earlier 1944 one with Britten conducting the Boyd Neel Orchestra. There are some crackles on that recording but it is interesting to hear the interpretation when the music was recently composed and Pears is in much more youthful voice than here.
It took me a long while to appreciate Pears' voice, to which I was hitherto averse, but nowadays I find it highly distinctive and a lovely instrument. Clearly, his extraordinary timbre inspired some of the most ambitious writing by Britten.
I heard him live in 1970 (Winterreise and Winter Words) and his actual voice lacked the "edge" that makes many people dislike it. It seems to be an artifact of the recording process.
I have loved every note of this since I was 6! Peter's singing is divine and Dennis' horn-playing perfect
My story too. I was introduced to this extraordinary music by my beloved father when I was a small child. For me this has to be the definitive recording and I can disregard the less than perfect sound quality we have come to expect these days. An extremely difficult piece technically for both soloists and many have achieved equal technical perfection subsequently, but for me, none have done it with more heart. This piece has profoundly affected me my whole life long. What a joy to find it on TH-cam for everyone to enjoy.
@@ShoshiPlatypus YES..This piece has profoundly affected me 2 my whole life long.....me2.....lol..
Along with many struggles involved in my 65 years of horn playing, what an honor it has been to be able to perform this piece.....if only once...(Meadowbrook Summer Festival 1968)
@@freeman3320 What a privilege!
I studied this for O Level Music back in 1973 - 4. I love it so much and Brain and Rears are the best along with Britten, of course!
Maybe a sign of academic decline but I did for A Level in 1980. :) I was no world beater academically but this piece landed on the bullseye of my heart. I had no trouble appreciating how good it was which I think is a reflection of its quality. Also, my word, we've had some good poets haven't we?
I studied this in Australia for the equivalent of O Levels (year 11) in 1987. :) It still gives me chills. The interpretion of Tennyson's poetry to music is sublime. One year earlier, in 4th Form in the U.K. we studied 'Starlight Express' and some man came to the school to teach us how to write a pop song by rhyming 'dance' with 'romance'. 😆
Still the ultimate version of such a moving piece
Sehr authentische live Aufführung dieses perfekt komponierten Meisterwerks mit mildem Ton des Horns, klarer Stimme des Tenors und seidigen Töne der Streichinstrumente. Der geniale Dirigent leitet alles im veränderlichen Tempo mit effektiv kontrollierter Dynamik. Die Tonqualität ist auch ziemlich hoch als eine Aufnahme von sechzig Jahre vor zur Zeit des Hochladens. Alles ist wunderbar!
Here is a studio recording [with subtitles] of the Serenade also also featuring Peter Pears and Dennis Brain and also recorded in 1953.
th-cam.com/play/PLVUIaMDAYwqhtAPd7rCopj4wrlj3ZvXHV.html
The Wikipedia entry for this piece has both a list and the texts of all the poems in this piece: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serenade_for_Tenor,_Horn_and_Strings
This song is so awesome! Is definitely one of my favorites!
I am sitting her, imitating a French Horn, like the daft eleven-year-old I once was. I got thumped then but I was at least in key, according to my music teacher, a Miss Perfect from Leeds. I'm 53 now and nothing has changed - I'm still in key - though the fist is sadly no longer with us.
Superbe!
The "Dirge" Segment reminds me much of Arthur Benjamin's "Storm Clouds Cantata", used in Hitchcock's "The Man who knew too much" ...
Thank you!
Fantastico.
yes I got into the (?) later Barry Tuckwell recording in the 1970s as a teenager in Australia. I couldn't believe this work when I heard it. I was transported (no ancestral puns intended) and my life changed I guess. And then I heard Vaughan-Williams' "Fantasia"... et voila!
Et voilà quoi? Pardon me, but I don’t know what you are getting at? Do you hear Britten in VW or the contrary? Or are you saying something completely other?
Please find the Arvo Parte piece he wrote commemorating Benjamin Britton...phenomenal.
It’s here on TH-cam. You can find it easily!
Also Francis Poulenc's Élégie for Horn and Piano, composed in memory of Dennis Brain.
I've just updated the informations.
I won't quibble, it's good.
Would it be possible to have a list of individual titles of the poems with the names of the poets?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serenade_for_Tenor,_Horn_and_Strings
Délicieusement anglais !
except maybe, their later recording with Barry Tuckwell, the composer conducting.
Jack Housman Tuckwell tried to channel Dennis Brain but was not successful.
@@brookeggleston9314 , haha! A lot of hornists could do (and have done) much worse than trying to channel Dennis Brain! Tuckwell, of course, had his own voice when he wasn't doing that.
*******
Damn straight zero thumbs down
You jinxed it.
Don't encourage the trolls.
Yet another idiot who posts contrary to the overwhelming majority just to elicit outraged objections. Don't listen to the dumb sod . . .
The horn on this version does not play correctly. check th-cam.com/video/mkLyK-oSQ7A/w-d-xo.html for the right intonation, especially the prologue.
I was thinking that too, weird since the piece was written for Brain, he should know
Britten asks the horn player to use only natural harmonics in the prologue and epilogue. This makes it sound rather eerie and gives the impression that the notes are out of tune, but they are not.