Letter From Benjamin Britten

[Letter from Benjamin Britten]
Author(s): Benjamin Britten

Source: Tempo , Winter, 1954-1955, New Series, No. 34 (Winter, 1954-1955), p. 39
Published by: Cambridge University Press
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/943525
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CORRESPONDENCE 39
marked
markedwith
withopposite
opposite
instructions
instructions
in the in
two
the two
scores. Or is that miniature score rallcntando
an unofficial marking?
NEW FULL
Yours sincerely,
M. S. TILLETT.
SCORES Donald Mitchell replies:-If Mr. Tillett is

right-as he doubtless is-then I owe Mr.
net Ormandy an apology. I have never seen the
score of the three Wozzeck fragments and have
ALBINONI
ALBINONISonata
Sonata
a Cinque
a Cinque always assumed that the senza rit. of the
Op. 5, No. 9. opera's closing bars would apply equally to
Concerto in D, the suite. Since, when one knows the opera
Op. 7, No. I for very well, one listens to the suite through, as
it were, one's total emotional experience of
strings and continuo.
the opera, the rit. molto comes as a nasty
Elaborated by Ber- jar. After all, the whole point of the senza
nard Paumgartner2/- rit. in the opera is to avoid burdening the
children's scene with sentiment. The senza
BRITTEN Symphonic Suite, rit. in fact, ensures the senza esprcss with
which the children receive the news of the
Gloriana," Op.
dead Marie. This deliberate non-sentiment-
53a 30/-
ality, of course, touches off the deepest springs
DONATONI Sinfonia per of feeling. Why Berg abandoned this central
feature in the three fragments I do not know.
Orchestra d'Archi 2I/-
Perhaps he thought a ritardando made for a
more effective close in the concert hall.
FINZI Grand Fantasia and
Perhaps he thought the senza rit. had no
Toccata for piano- point when detached from the main body of
2I/-
forte and orchestra the opera. It is my view that he was wrong on
both points. But there seems no doubt that
MUDGE Concerto No. 4 in Mr. Ormandy was strictly fulfilling Berg's
D minorfor orches- intentions in his Scheveningen performance
and I regret having blamed him for what-
tra and continuo, thinking it over-seems to have been an
edited and arranged aberration on the part of the composer.
by Gerald Finzi . . I 2/- THE EDITOR,
TEMPO,
STANLEY Concerto No. 4 13th December, 1954
in D minor for SIR,
string orchestra or Your review of the new Decca recording
piano (organ or of my SERENADE FOR TENOR, HORN AND
STRINGS has recently been shown to me. I
harpsichord) with
should like, if you will allow me, to make a
string accompani- comment on it.
ment
8/- In the Prologue and Epilogue the horn is
Concerto No. 5 directed to play on the natural harmonics of
for string orchestra I 0/- the instrument; this causes the apparent " out-
of-tuneness " of which your reviewer com-
plains, and which is, in fact, exactly the
VLAD Divertimento per effect I intend.
i instrumenti .. 25/- In the many brilliant performances of his
part that Dennis Brain has given he has always
I am sure, played it as I have marked it in the
score. Anyone, therefore, who plays it "in
Published
Published by by
tune " is going directly against my wishes!
If the critics do not like this effect they
Boosey & Hawkes should blame me and not Mr. Brain.
Yours etc.,
BENJAMIN BRITTEN
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[Letter from Benjamin Britten]

Author(s): Benjamin Britten

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/943525

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SCORES Donald Mitchell replies:-If Mr. Tillett is

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