Famous people. Benjamin britten

The success of early writings.

• Britten's early compositions, the Simple Symphony and the Sinfonietta for chamber orchestra, attracted attention with their charming combination of youthful freshness and professional maturity. The beginning of Britten's creative biography is reminiscent of the young Shostakovich: brilliant pianism, amazing knowledge of musical literature of all genres, immediacy and constant readiness to write music, fluency in the secrets of the composer's craft.

• A simple symphony simply meets you at every step with an unusual peculiar harmony. The harmonies of which it is composed are inaccessible to the classical perception of music. Therefore, it is fair to say that the "Simple Symphony" made Benjamin "an English Picasso."

At the beginning of his career, Britten was attracted mainly by instrumental music: symphonic suites, variations, piano and violin concertos, the already mentioned Simple Symphony and Sinfonietta; in the chamber genre - piano and violin pieces, string quartet, Fantastic quartet for oboe, violin, viola and cello.

• At the beginning of his career, Britten was attracted mainly by instrumental music: symphonic suites, variations, piano and violin concertos, the already mentioned Simple Symphony and Sinfonietta; in the chamber genre - piano and violin pieces, string quartet, Fantastic quartet for oboe, violin, viola and cello.
• Britten has a magnificent feature of a real "artisan" who does not disdain any work, because each, any work gives rise to creative impulses; he "fills his hand" on film music, on the design of radio shows, composing various kinds of samples of "everyday music".

…and in the vocal genre

• The vocal genre also determined the further work of the English composer.
• A number of the best pages of his music are written for voice and orchestra: Illuminations (Les Illuminations, 1939); Serenade (Serenada, 1943); Nocturne, Nocturne, 1958)
• and for voice with piano:
• Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo (Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo, 1940);
• Spiritual Sonnets of John Donne (The Holy Sonnets of John Donne, 1945);
• Winter Words by T. Hardy (Winter Words, 1953);
• Six fragments from Hölderlin (Six Hlderlin Fragments, 1958).
• Among the numerous works of the genre, cantatas stand out - A child was born to us (A boy was born, 1933),
• Hymn of St. Cecilia (Hymn to St. Cecilia, 1942),
• Wreath carols (The ceremony of carols, 1942),
• St. _ Nicholas (Saint Nicolas, 1948),
• Cantata of Mercy (Cantata misericordium, 1963).
• In the well-known monumental War Requiem, where the verses of the English poet W. Owen, who died in the First World War, are interspersed with the texts of the Catholic funeral mass, the music reveals the theme of the senselessness of all wars.