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Benjamin Britten was born in Lowestoft on 22 November 1913. His birthday falls on St Cecilia's Day, a happy augury for the career of one of Britain's greatest composers. Essentially a vocal composer, his operas and song-cycles won wide international acceptance. He never abandoned the principles of tonality and was a 'modern' composer who reached a mass audience, and a conservative whose originality no radical would sensibly deny. He shared with his predecessors Parry, Vaughan Williams, and Holst, an intense interest in works for amateurs and children. His brilliant gifts as a pianist and conductor coupled with the virtuoso nature of his inventiveness also led him to compose music for great performers such as the cellist Rostropovich and the singers Vishnevskaya, Fischer-Dieskau, and Janet Baker. The greatest personal influence on his music was his friendship with the tenor Peter Pears, for whom he composed many operatic and vocal roles.
In 1948 Britten, Pears and Eric Crozier founded the Aldeburgh Festival, now one of the most respected establishments for new English music. In 1952 he was made a Companion of Honour, in 1965 received the Order of Merit, and in 1976, the year of his death, he became the first composer to receive a life peerage.
Oxford University Press was Britten's first publisher. In the early 1930s A Boy was Born and the Simple Symphony brought him great critical acclaim and began his compositional career. OUP is delighted to present some previously unpublished pieces in collaboration with the Britten Estate. These include the Double Concerto for Violin and Viola, premièred at Snape by the Britten-Pears Orchestra under Kent Nagano in June 1997; Two Portraits for String Orchestra, premièred on BBC Radio 3 in December 1995 by the Northern Sinfonia under Martyn Brabbins; The World of the Spirit, the full version first performed in 1938 on the BBC Home Service, the abridged version in December 1995; and the King Arthur Suite for Orchestra premièred at Snape in 1995 by the Royal Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra under Lutz Koehler.
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