Episode 201. Britten & Pears (Pride 2023)
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Today’s episode explores the lives and loves of two of the most significant figures in twentieth century music: Benjamin Britten, the dean of British composers and the tenor Peter Pears, his partner, lover, inspiration and muse for nearly forty years. When as a lost young gay boy I first encountered their music-making I intuited that these two men were lovers, that they represented a way forward for me out of a lonely and forlorn childhood. Whether in the many songs and cycles that Britten fashioned for him or the operatic roles, beginning with the title role of Peter Grimes, that were tailor-made for him, Pears remains the ideal interpreter of his partner’s music, possessed as he was of a distinctive (some would say peculiar) voice, supple, reedy yet surprisingly powerful, along with pinpoint musical precision, plangent expressivity and dramatic aptitude. The episode features excerpts from many of Britten’s most explicitly gay compositions, surprising for a man living in Britain while sex between men was still illegal, including the operas Peter Grimes, Curlew River, Billy Budd, and Death in Venice and his settings of poetry by Michelangelo, Shakespeare, Auden, and Francis Quarles. We also hear Pears and Britten in live and recorded performance of songs and arias by other composers, including composers Britten revered (Schumann, Schubert, Tchaikovsky, and Frank Bridge), and those of whose music he was much less fond (including Vaughan Williams and Brahms). The episode contains more biographical information than your typical Countermelody episode, and does not shy away from some of the thorniest questions that one must confront when discussing these two controversial figures. But in the end it is first and foremost a celebration of the music Britten and Pears made together and the love they shared for 40 years. The episode begins with a heartfelt (and heartbroken) tribute to the great Glenda Jackson, who died this week at the age of 87.
Glenda Jackson as Mother Courage at the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, 1989
RECORDINGS HEARD IN THIS EPISODE
Richard Peaslee, Adrian Mitchell: Corday Waltz (Marat/Sade). Glenda Jackson [1967]
Stevie Smith: Come Death. Glenda Jackson [1977]
Benjamin Britten, Michelangelo Buonarotti: Veggio co’ bei vostri occhi (Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo, Op. 22/3). Peter Pears, Benjamin Britten [1942]
Benjamin Britten, Montagu Slater [after George Crabbe]: Steady… There you are… Nearly home (Peter Grimes). Peter Pears, Reginald Goodall, Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, BBC Theatre Chorus [1948]
Benjamin Britten, Wilfred Owen: Move him into the sun / Lacrymosa (War Requiem, Op. 66). Peter Pears, Heather Harper, Benjamin Britten, Meredith Davies, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Melos Ensemble, Coventry Festival Choir [30.V..62]
Peter Warlock, Traditional text: Corpus Christi Carol. Peter Pears, Leslie Woodgate, BBC Chorus [1936]
Traditional Balinese, arr. Colin McPhee: Lagu delem. Benjamin Britten, Colin McPhee [1941]
Daniel Decatur Emmett, arr. Aaron Copland: The Boatmen’s Dance (Old American Songs, Set 1, No. 1). Peter Pears, Benjamin Britten [1950]
Benjamin Britten, W.H. Auden: Nocturne (On this Island, Op. 11/4). Peter Pears, Benjamin Britten [live Aldeburgh 18.VI.69]
Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky [after Alexander Pushkin]: Lensky’s Aria (Yevgeny Onegin). Peter Pears, Benjamin Britten [live Aldeburgh 1963]
Robert Schumann, Heinrich Heine: Wenn ich in deine Augen seh’ (Dichterliebe, Op. 48/4). Peter Pears, Benjamin Britten [BBC 09.III.61]
Franz Schubert, Johann Anton Friedrich Reil: Das Lied im Grünen, D.917. Peter Pears, Benjamin Britten [live BBC 03.I.64]
Gabriel Fauré, Paul Verlaine: Puisque l’aube grandit (La bonne chanson, Op. 61/2). Peter Pears, Benjamin Britten [live Aldeburgh 15.VI.58]
Ralph Vaughan Williams, A.E. Housman: Is my team ploughing? (On Wenlock Edge). Peter Pears, Benjamin Britten, Zorian String Quartet [Olive Zorian, Marjorie Lavers, Christopher Wellington, Norina Semino [1948]
Johannes Brahms, Georg Friedrich Daumer: Nicht wandle, mein Licht (Liebeslieder-Walzer, Op. 52/16). Peter Pears, Benjamin Britten, Claudio Arrau [live Aldeburgh 14.VI.68]
Benjamin Britten, Thomas Hardy: At the Railway Station, Upway [The Convict and the Boy with the Violin] (Winter Words, Op. 52/7). Peter Pears, Benjamin Britten [live Leningrad 17.III.63]
Charles Dibdin, arr. Benjamin Britten: Tom Bowling. Peter Pears, Benjamin Britten [live BBC telecast 21.VI.64]
Benjamin Britten, William Shakespeare Sonnett XLIII [When most I wink, they do my eyes best see] (Nocturne, Op. 60). Peter Pears, Benjamin Britten, English Chamber Orchestra [live Croydon 20.XII.64]
Benjamin Britten, E.M. Forster, Eric Crozier [after Herman Melville]: For I could have saved him (Billy Budd). Peter Pears, Benjamin Britten, Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden [world premiere London 01.XII.51]
Benjamin Britten, William Shakespeare [adapted Peter Pears and Britten]: Asleep, my love? What, dead, my dove? (A Midsummer Night’s Dream). Peter Pears, Forbes Robinson, George Maran, Owen Brannigan, Benjamin Britten, The English Opera Group Orchestra [world premiere Aldeburgh 11.VI.60]
Benjamin Britten, William Plomer [after Sumidagawa by Kanze Jūrō]: Clear as a sky without a cloud… Near the Black Mountains there I dwelt (Curlew River). Peter Pears, Benjamin Britten, Instrumental Ensemble [Richard Adeney, Osian Ellis, Neill Sanders, Philip Ledger, Stuart Knussen, Cecil Aronowitz] [1966]
Benjamin Britten, Myfanwy Piper [after Thomas Mann]: The boy, Tadziù, shall inspire me (Death in Venice). Peter Pears, Steuart Bedford, English Chamber Orchestra [live Aldeburgh 22.VI.73]
Gustav Holst, Humbert Wolfe: Journey’s End (Twelve Songs by Humbert Wolfe, Op. 48/9). Peter Pears, Benjamin Britten [1965]
Frank Bridge, William Butler Yeats: When you are old. Peter Pears, Benjamin Britten [1963]
Benjamin Britten, Francis Quarles [after the Song of Solomon]: My beloved is mine (Canticle I), Op. 40. Peter Pears, Benjamin Britten [1959]
