John Adams on Britten

American composer John Adams on the inspiring example of Benjamin Britten as a composer who stuck to his own musical and political principles. Just one of the fans celebrating Britten's centenary at www.britten100.org.

[@PMS1950]

I absolutely love Britten's music and it's wonderful to hear another musical hero of mine, John Adams, pay such a warm tribute to Ben's music.

[@localdriver]

John Adams could be my double.

[@jakelance5786]

@Misty Uren judging by his profile picture, they look very similar

[@nandocordeiro5853]

Your profile pic looks just like a picture of him online! I thought it was actually him for a second.

[@localdriver]

@@nandocordeiro5853 Thanks! I showed a photo of John Adams to my girl friend and she thought it was an old shot of me. Could he and I be distantly related?

[@andrewhague1521]

Have a listen to Britten's Tenor solo in Rejoice in the lamb (there's a version on youtube played as a cello solo). It really does sound like JA

[@lanechange2795]

Which composer was better at setting great poetry to music than Britten?

[@AntPDC]

Fellow Englishman, Gerald Finzi.

[@pianistgetsalife8790]

Schubert was definitely equally good. :D But they're both among greats.

[@jefolson6989]

@Misty Uren Schumann, Wolf, Schubert, Robert Franz, Mahler, Brahms. Britten's settings of mediocre poetry are appropriate to the material.

[@nandocordeiro5853]

French musicians with the poems of Maillard

[@andrewhague1521]

Comparisons are odious.

[@brumchap]

Adams is actually rather dismissive of Britten in his autobiography.

[@RichardASalisbury1]

I'm a bit surprised that Adams wrote dismissively of Britten--partly, no doubt, because in my estimation Adams hardly comes close to Britten in the quality of his compositions (I consider Britten one of the two or three greatest twentieth-century composers, along with Bartok and maybe Shostakovich). But I must give credit to Adams for this: Long acquainted with Britten's music, I was fortunate to attend the 1990 Cabrillo Music Festival in Santa Cruz, California, which presents 20th-century, and now 21st-century, compositions, usually by living composers; from 1991 through 2016, Marin Alsop was the orchestra conductor and music director. But in 1990 Adams was guest conductor and director. Among other things he conducted Britten's "Sinfonia da Requiem." Hitherto I had heard only a performance by Simon Rattle, on a cassette tape; his interpretation somehow always left me with the impression that the Sinfonia was a weak composition, not of the caliber of its rough contemporaries in Britten's oeuvre, the piano concerto and, especially, the violin concerto, to me one of the greatest of that century. But that night, hearing Adams conduct, I was overwhelmed by his performance, which erased all my doubts about the quality of that work.

[@PMS1950]

I hadn't realised that Adam's dismissed Britten in his autobiography. That's sad, but he's still young and may reassess his feelings at a later stage.

[@Baribrotzer]

@@PMS1950 Adams is young? He's in his early seventies. I suppose you could say that he's still learning how to be a composer, and he's young in that way, but most truly good artists never stop learning.

[@jslasher1]

@@Baribrotzer Never much liked Adams as a composer. A few better conductor of other composers music, however.

[@jefolson6989]

Brahms music was hated by Britten, for reasons no one knows. It makes me question all of Brittens music. Did he believe he was superior?