BRITTEN IN AMERICA WITH ELIZABETH WATTS AND OLEG SHEBETA-DRAGAN

In 1940 Benjamin Britten and his partner Peter Pears moved into a house-share in Brooklyn with poet WH Auden, writer-composer Paul Bowles and burlesque artist Gypsy-Rose Lee. The constant flow of creative people created a fertile environment for Britten. Much of the dazzling song cycle Les Illuminations – settings of proto-surrealist poetry by Arthur Rimbaud – was composed early in their stay, and the vigorous Young Apollo for piano and strings was a commission by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, premiered in August 1939.

We also hear the sound of 1940s America in the works of Britten’s “very dear friend” and mentor in his bohemian New York circle, Aaron Copland. This programme includes two of his greatest works from the 1940s – the ballet Appalachian Spring and the Clarinet Concerto, written for Benny Goodman – and piano works by his student Paul Bowles, who would later become much better known as the author of the novel, The Sheltering Sky.

Britten Sinfonia are joined by soprano Elizabeth Watts in Les Illuminations, and BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist Oleg Shebata-Dragan – multiple prize-winner at the prestigious Carl Nielsen Competition – in Copland’s Clarinet Concerto.