by Neil Powell
Wilkinson, Kenneth
Wilkinson, Patrick
Williams, Grace
Williamson, Malcolm
Wilson, Edmund
Wilson, Nora
Winkler, Max
Wireless Singers
Wireless Vocal Octet
Wither, George
Wittgenstein, Paul
Wolfsgarten
Wolpe, Berthold
Wood, Anne
Wood, Henry
Wood, Richard
Woodgate, Leslie
Woolf, Virginia
Woolford, John see Scherchen, Wulff
Woolford, Pauline
Wordsworth, William
World Film News
Wright, Basil
Wright, Kenneth
Wyss, Sophie
Y
Yeatman, R. J.
Yeats, W. B.
Yeomans, Walter
Yorkshire Post
Yoxford, Suffolk
Z
Zorian, Olive
Zorian String Quartet
Zurich
Edith Britten with her four children, 1914
Benjamin and his father aboard HMS Burslem, 1921
The cast of The Water Babies with Benjamin on his mother’s knee, 1918
The prodigy: Benjamin with multiple scores, c. 1921
Prep schoolboy: with Francis Barton, 1928
Public schoolboy: reading by a river, c. 1929
Britten with Ethel and Frank Bridge, c.1930
Wulff Scherchen, Britten and John Alston in Snape, c. 1938–9
Britten with his sister Beth at her wedding, 1938
Peggy Brosa, Antonio Brosa, Victor Kraft, Britten and Aaron Copland picnicking in America; Peter Pears behind the camera, c. 1939–40
Pears and Britten in Brooklyn Heights, New York, where they shared a house with, among others, W. H. Auden, 1940
Auden and Britten in New York at the time of rehearsals for Paul Bunyan, 1941
Pears and Britten with his sister, Beth Welford, and his niece and nephew on Snape Bridge, 1943
Britten at the gate of the Old Mill, Snape, 1946
Britten and Eric Crozier with the set model for Peter Grimes, 1945
‘Now the Great Bear and Pleiades…’: the scene in The Boar from Peter Grimes with Pears in the title role, Sadler’s Wells, 1945
Britten, Pears and the English Opera Group at Glyndebourne during rehearsals for Albert Herring, 1947
Britten, Pears, Joan Cross, Otakar Kraus, Lesley Duff and Anna Pollak on tour across Europe with The Rape of Lucretia, 1947
Britten in his Rolls with children from the cast of Let’s Make an Opera, 1949
Pears, E. M. Forster, Robin Long (‘The Nipper’), Britten and Billy Burrell, 1948
Pears and Britten shopping in Aldeburgh High Street, 1948
Britten leaving the Concertgebouw after the premiere of his Spring Symphony at the Holland Festival, Amsterdam, 1949
E. M. Forster, Britten and Eric Crozier working on Billy Budd in the study at Crabbe Street, Aldeburgh, 1949
Imogen Holst conducting the Aldeburgh Music Club, including Britten and Pears, as part of ‘Music on the Meare’, Thorpeness, 1954
Premiere of Noye’s Fludde, performed in the Aldeburgh Festival at St Bartholomew’s Church, Orford, 1958
Pears, Prince Ludwig and Princess Margaret of Hesse and the Rhine and Britten in Balinese costume, Bali, 1956
Britten, Pears, Princess Margaret and Prince Ludwig, Venice, 1957
Britten accepting the Honorary Freedom of the Borough of Aldeburgh, 1962
Britten and Colin Graham leaving The Red House in Britten’s Alvis, Aldeburgh, 1964
Britten and Meredith Davies in discussion during rehearsals for the first performance of the War Requiem, Coventry Cathedral, 1962
With soprano Galina Vishnevskaya after recording the War Requiem, London, 1963
With viola player Cecil Aronowitz during a Decca recording session of The Burning Fiery Furnace, Orford Church, 1967
With cellist Mstislav Rostropovich during the rehearsal for the first UK performance of Symphony for Cello and Orchestra, Blythburgh Church, 1964
Rehearsals for the television recording of Peter Grimes at the Snape Maltings Concert Hall, 1969
Death in Venice: the final scene, with Pears (Aschenbach) and Robert Huguenin (Tadzio), Snape Maltings, 1973
Britten and Pears at Snape, 1975
ILLUSTRATION CREDITS
Pictures reproduced courtesy of the Britten-Pears Foundation (www.brittenpears.org): 1. PH/4/2; 2. PH/4/17; 3. PH/4/8; 4. PH/1/7; 5. PH/4/38; 6. PH/1/21; 7. PH/4/46; 8. PH/4/66; 9. PH/4/60; 10. © Peter Pears, PH/4/60PH/4/70; 11. PH/3/4; 12. PH/4/75; 13. PH/5/8; 17. PH/5/28; 18. PH/5/33; 22. PH/4/141; 24. © Marion Thorpe, PH/5/119; 25. © Kurt Hutton, PHPN/11/1/33; 26. PH/5/138; 27. PH/5/165; 28. © W. B. Allen, PH/4/283; 32. © Richard Adeney, PH/7/67; 34. PH/7/116A; 36. © Victor Parker, PH/3/114
Pictures reproduced courtesy of Getty Images: 14. George Rodger/Time Life/Getty Images; 15. Alex Bender/Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images; 19. Kurt Hutton/Picture Post/Getty Images; 20. Kurt Hutton/Getty Images; 21. Kurt Hutton/Picture Post/Getty Images; 23. Kurt Hutton/Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images; 30. Erich Auerbach/Getty Images; 31. Erich Auerbach/Getty Images
Pictures reproduced courtesy of the Harvard Theatre Collection: 16. Angus McBean Photograph (MS Thr 581) © Harvard Theatre Collection, Houghton Library, Harvard University
Pictures reproduced courtesy of Lebrecht: 29. Brian Seed/Lebrecht Music & Arts; 33. Brian Seed/Lebrecht Music & Arts; 35. Nigel Luckhurst/Lebrecht Music & Arts
ALSO BY NEIL POWELL
At the Edge
Carpenters of Light
A Season of Calm Weather
True Colours
The Stones on Thorpeness Beach
Roy Fuller: Writer and Society
The Language of Jazz
Selected Poems
George Crabbe: An English Life
A Halfway House
Amis & Son: Two Literary Generations
Proof of Identity
About the Author
NEIL POWELL is the author of biographies of George Crabbe and Kingsley and Martin Amis, as well as seven collections of poetry. He has contributed to numerous journals and newspapers, including The Guardian and The Times Literary Supplement. Powell now lives in Aldeburgh, where Britten lived for the last thirty years of his life.
BENJAMIN BRITTEN: A LIFE FOR MUSIC. Copyright © 2013 by Neil Powell. All rights reserved. For information, address Henry Holt and Co., 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.henryholt.com
Cover art credit:
Benjamin Britten with Peter Pears
© Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS
Benjamin Britten Plays the Piano
© Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS
Sir Peter Neville Luard Pears (1910–86)
© Sir Peter Neville Luard Pears (1910–86), Meitner–Graf, Lotte (1901–73)/Private Collection / The Bridgeman Art Library
Lines from ‘Underneath the abject willow’, ‘Out on the lawn I lie in bed’, and ‘As it is, plenty’ from COLLECTED POEMS OF W.H. AUDEN by W.H. Auden, copyright © 1976 by Edward Mendelson, William Meredith and Monroe K. Spears, Executors of the Estate of W.H. Auden. Used by permission of Random House, Inc. Any third party use of this material, outside of this publication, is prohibited. Interested parties must apply directly to Random House, Inc. for permission.
Lines from ‘Night covers up the rigid land’ copyright © 1936 by W.H. Auden, renewed.
Reprinted by permission of Curtis Brown, Ltd.
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Powell, Neil, 1948–
Benjamin Britten : a life for music / by Neil Powell.—First U.S. edition. pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8050-9774-0
1. Britten, Benjamin, 1913–1
976. 2. Composers—England—Biography. I. Title.
ML410.B853P68 2013
780.92—dc23
[B] 2012051536
e-ISBN 9780805097757
Originally published in the U.K. in 2013 by Hutchinson
First U.S. Edition August 2013
First eBook edition: August 2013
