Book description
The third volume of the annotated selected letters of composer
Benjamin Britten covers the years 1946-51, during which he wrote many
of his best-known works, founded and developed the English Opera Group
and the Aldeburgh Festival, and toured widely in Europe and the United
States as a pianist and conductor. Correspondents include librettists
Ronald Duncan (The Rape of Lucretia), Eric Crozier (Albert Herring,
Saint Nicolas, The Little Sweep) and E. M. Forster (Billy Budd);
conductor Ernest Ansermet and composer Lennox Berkeley; publishers
Ralph Hawkes and Erwin Stein of Boosey & Hawkes; and the
celebrated tenor Peter Pears, Britten's partner. Among friends in the
United States are Christopher Isherwood, Elizabeth Mayer and Aaron
Copland, and there is a significant meeting with Igor Stravinsky. This
often startling and innovative period is vividly evoked by the
comprehensive and scholarly annotations, which offer a wide range of
detailed information fascinating for both the Britten specialist and
the general reader. Donald Mitchell contributes a challenging
introduction exploring the interaction of life and work in Britten's
creativity, and an essay examining for the first time, through their
correspondence, the complex relationship between the composer and the
writer Edward Sackville-West.
