Letters from a Life: The Selected Letters of BENJAMIN BRITTEN
1913–1976. Volume Five: 1958–1965, ed. Philip Reed and Mervyn
Cooke. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press 2010. 1764 pp., illustrations.
The rate of issue of this edition of Britten’s letters has gained
speed since the first two volumes were published in 1991. That’s
certainly a positive trend since the project was (after volume
3) taken over by Boydells. Philip Reed has been involved from
the very beginning, and even after nearly twenty years the editorial
principles and outlook of the books has been retained.
This generously-illustrated, sumptuously annotated series gives
deep insights into Britten’s life and milieu. In this volume
we witness Britten encouraging young and aspiring composers:
Maxwell Davies, Bennett, Maw, Birtwistle, Williamson amongst
many others. Britten had at this stage reached the peak of his
career, with the composition of, amongst other works, the two
cantatas, the Cello Sonata, Noye’s Fludde, Nocturne,
and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. We should not forget the
War Requiem which met with wide international acclaim.
The extent of Britten’s celebrity can be glimpsed in that Britten
and Pears once dined with no less a figure than Luigi Nono and
his wife in Venice. We wonder, in Britten’s letter to Nono of
1 October 1962, what the following sentence means: “Thank you
very much for your note, & for the money.” A typical case
where one would long for a commentary. There are more such instances
in the entire series. Why, for example, are so many contemporaneous
English composers entirely absent. It is interesting to see
which musicians have hardly ever featured in the five volumes
to date. What happened to Edmund Rubbra, Herbert Howells or
Alan Bush - although Bush did write a song-cycle for Pears in
1953.
Naturally it is Britten’s cosmos that we experience and
that affords only an incomplete vista of the actual British
musical scene. This may be something a German editor would comment
upon, but would it be relevant to an edition of Britten letters?
I think it would, since Britten, as an outstanding figure of
the British musical life in the Twentieth century - we experience
him deeply involved in organising performances and performing
himself - takes a very particular outlook at others, and hence
influenced generations both of listeners and musicians.
Though naturally sympathetic towards Britten minor behavioural
flaws are not neglected. His tirade against Lord Harewood after
the break-up of his marriage (p. 631) is bitter indeed. Still,
one thing becomes clear about which I have always wondered when
reading the previous four volumes. There are more Britten letters
than those included in these volumes. We are not told what the
criteria were for their inclusion or exclusion nor is there
given any information about there location, whether they are
in the Britten-Pears Library or elsewhere. This means, a checking
of sources is impossible. Now everybody ever having worked with
original sources knows that there can easily be misspellings
or misreadings, and although this is rather improbable with
respect to the editors’ authority, such things can happen. Also
does one wander whether there have been omissions either through
the choice of letters or, in single letters, for other reasons
(e.g. in Britten’s letter to E.M. Forster, 21 April 1962, p.
393).
In total however, we have a most inspiring and inspired publication,
with plenty new insights into Britten and his world. Departing
from this edition, and together with the multitude of other
important Britten publications over the past few years, we have
a much more substantial basis for future Britten research, and
for the understanding of Britten and his music.
Jürgen Schaarwächter
