Britten Spring Symphony. Peter Grimes (excs)
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Benjamin Britten
Label: EMI
Magazine Review Date: 4/1987
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 61
Catalogue Number: 747667-2
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| (A) Spring Symphony |
Benjamin Britten, Composer
André Previn, Conductor Benjamin Britten, Composer Janet Baker, Mezzo soprano London Symphony Chorus (amateur) London Symphony Orchestra Robert Tear, Tenor Sheila Armstrong, Soprano St Clement Danes School Choir |
| (4) Sea Interludes |
Benjamin Britten, Composer
André Previn, Conductor Benjamin Britten, Composer London Symphony Orchestra |
Author: Arnold Whittall
This attractive CD comes hard on the heels of the reissue of the same coupling on budget-price LP. The Spring Symphony is expertly performed, with Robert Tear in especially commanding form, and Andre Previn is commendably alert to the score's varied moods and ambiguities. In particular, he gives the expansive finale, which can easily flag, a strong sense of direction and excitement. When the LP was first issued (4/79), EG wrote of its ''enormous dynamic range''. This seems almost artificially extreme on CD, with the climax of the Auden setting offering a disconcerting shift from overpowering loudness to remote softness. There is also some lack of textural clarity in loud passages elsewhere, but these are very minor defects.
When comparing the LP version of the Grimes Interludes (12/86), MEO preferred the sound of Previn's 1976 recording to that of Handley's, made for Chandos a decade later (and coupled with Bax'sOn the sea-shore and Bridge's The Sea). While CD sound can't exactly transform the Ulster Orchestra strings into world-beaters, the overall effect is satisfyingly full and rich, with that burnished edge so vital to this music. In Interlude No. 3 Handley seems unnecessarily brisk, and neither he nor Previn quite match the composer's own ferocity in the storm (Interlude No. 4). But both are perfectly acceptable, especially with such different, and appealing, couplings.'
When comparing the LP version of the Grimes Interludes (12/86), MEO preferred the sound of Previn's 1976 recording to that of Handley's, made for Chandos a decade later (and coupled with Bax's
Britten Spring Symphony. Peter Grimes (excs)
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