Darkness Audible: Benjamin Britten at 100 - Early, 1913-1945 - Paul Kildea and Mark Milhofer

On the day Penguin publishes Benjamin Britten: A Life in the Twentieth Century, the first major biography of Britten in twenty years, author Paul Kildea traces the emergence of the greatest English musician of the last century.
In this illustrated lecture Kildea explores the influences on Britten in his first decades -- conservative and progressive, social and musical, political and sexual -- and how this middle-class boy, who grew up writing music in an early-nineteenth-century manner and playing Beethoven sonatas and works by Wagner and Brahms, became the composer of Peter Grimes, a work that changed the face of English music.
This is the first in a series of three lectures in which conductor Paul Kildea, author of a major new biography of composer Benjamin Britten, explores the life and music of this colossal twentieth-century artist.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
www.gresham.ac....
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently nearly 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: www.gresham.ac.uk
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[@davidjames9626]

Marvelous oration here..thank you.. I am not a student of music.. I do though love Peter Grimes and esp. the sea interludes..If I do not warm to a lecturer I cut off straight away..not here I will look up more Kildea lectures.. Thank you..

[@JohnSmith-nc6tg]

Thank you for this, most enlightening. The other parts too...

[@jslasher1]

Excellent lecture.

[@patrickpat4499]

Most rewarding!

[@stephenarnold3015]

Can someone stop him saying "if you like" every other sentence?

[@davidjames9626]

Methinks thoust has a big chip on your shoulder.. ..

[@stephenarnold3015]

"they allowed him to get on with his life". More's the pity - he should have been jailed for life - with no access to manuscript paper