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The Latest Breaking News from Britten

Earth and Other Planets review – reimagined Holst with harmonica and a hoedown

Left-field duo Stevens & Pound threaded funky folk stylings with poetry by Robert Macfarlane and virtuoso playing by Britten Sinfonia to create The Silent Planet, a rethinking of Holst’s Planets Suite, with the addition of the newly composed Earth

The Guardian - UK

Albert Herring review – ENO heralds new era with witty staging of Britten’s story of a mummy’s boy

English National Opera’s first shared production between London and Salford is a fluent and finely sung take on Britten’s 1947 comic opera. Antony McDonald’s lively staging gives the slender tale a sitcom feel

The Guardian - UK

Britten: Sinfonia da Requiem, Winter Words (arr Holloway), etc album review – confirms Gardner’s status as an outstanding conductor of Britten

The first recording of Robin Holloway’s imaginative orchestration of the song cycle Winter Words is fascinating, and completes a superb new disc of Britten’s music

The Guardian - UK

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Peter Grimes review – WNO’s production of Britten’s masterwork seethes like a wild and cruel sea

Melly Still’s new staging production brilliantly captures the tortured guilt, small-minded bitching and flash-points of volatility, with Nicky Spence a sympathetic Grimes

The Guardian - UK

New heights, fond farewells and daring acrobatics – the year in classical music

It was a thrilling year with glittering new works, an electrifying Proms season, Puccini in a laundry and Britten on a trapeze

The Guardian - UK

Takács Quartet review – a superlative performance in which the music never sits still

Britten’s second string quartet was framed by forward-looking works by Haydn and Beethoven with each work sounding fresh in an entrancing concert

The Guardian - UK

Hallé/Wong review – new chapter begins with muted Mahler

Kahchun Wong starts his tenure as the Manchester orchestra’s principal conductor with Mahler’s first and a suite from Britten’s Prince of the Pagodas

The Guardian - UK

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Imogen Holst: Discovering Imogen album review – expressive works from composer hiding in plain sight

The daughter of Gustav and assistant to Benjamin Britten, Imogen Holst wrote her own imaginative and unsentimental music, gathered here for the first time

The Guardian - UK

All for you! Janet Jackson, Snõõper, Bob Dylan and more: the best music of autumn 2024

From Chat Pile’s apocalyptic noise to Nala Sinephro’s celestial bliss, plus posthumous releases from MC5 and Sophie, here are the albums and tours not to miss – while in classical, Kahchun Wong takes over at the Hallé

The Guardian - UK

The week in classical: Prom 37: Britten’s War Requiem; The Turn of the Screw – review

Britten’s explosive work is a rallying cry at the Proms, while a twilit production of his chamber opera feels properly ghostly

The Guardian - UK

Prom 37: Britten’s War Requiem review – a tragically relevant act of remembrance

Antonio Pappano seized every opportunity to build dramatic tension, while the London Symphony Orchestra played with fire and focus

The Guardian - UK

Benjamin Luxon obituary

Versatile baritone who appeared on television in Britten’s opera for the medium, Owen Wingrave, and in The Good Old Days

The Guardian - UK

The Rape of Lucretia review – British Youth Opera goes subterranean for a rip-roaring Britten

Director Talia Stern transforms an idealised tale of sexual violence in Rome into a shatteringly visceral, thoroughly contemporary show, led by a tender yet searing Alexandria Moon

The Guardian - UK

April Cantelo obituary

Versatile English soprano who premiered roles in operas including Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream

The Guardian - UK

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The Guardian - UK

BBCSSO/Wigglesworth/Pioro/Gerhardt review – consummate artistry and a broken string

Two concerts given by the BBC Scottish with soloists Daniel Pioro and Alban Gerhardt were imaginative and compelling

The Guardian - UK

Claire Seymour obituary

Other lives: Teacher, academic and writer with specialisms in Thomas Hardy and the operas of Benjamin Britten

The Guardian - UK

The week in classical: Death in Venice; Giant; Angela Hewitt review – five-star Britten and more

Britten’s yearning swansong blazes and beguiles in Welsh National Opera’s new production. Elsewhere, the sad tale of ‘Irish Giant’ Charles Byrne, and an enterprising orchestra for all

The Guardian - UK

The Turn of the Screw review – haunting, claustrophobic staging keeps the tension high

Isabelle Kettle’s new production of Britten’s chamber opera works well in the tiny Ustinov studio, blessed with a strong cast and many imaginative touches

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Evening Standard

Glories of English Song at St John's Church review: Helen Charlston's voice is little short of miraculous

These exquisitely nuanced interpretations hailed the emergence of a true star

The Guardian - UK

Two Moors festival review – Sitkovetsky Trio make this an unmissable weekend

On the west of England festival’s final two days, Deborah Pritchard’s new song cycle was expressive and sensitive, and the Sitkovetsky Trio’s Tchaikovsky was overwhelming

The Guardian - UK

Bostridge/Drake review – he conveys meaning and emotion with disarming clarity, each song was a gem

The tenor’s gift for narrative transforms each of these songs by Britten and Schubert into a tiny drama, with elegant accompaniment from the pianist

The Conversation

Quartet review: did four women really change the world of classical music?

The subtitle of Quartet, historian Leah Broad’s book about four UK women composers, reads boldly: How Four Women Changed the Musical World.

The Guardian - UK

BBC NOW/Otaka/Lamsma review – all-English programme flows from disquiet to joy

Conductor Tadaaki Otaka demonstrated his quiet authority and his instinctive way with Elgar during a concert that also included Britten and Elizabeth Maconchy

The Guardian - UK

‘It takes a community to develop a musician’: the Royal Philharmonic Society’s John Gilhooly

In an edited extract from his speech at the 2023 Royal Philharmonic awards, its chairman urges joined up thinking to ensure a healthy future for an art form that is central to the wellbeing and prosperity of our national life

The Guardian - UK

Gloriana review – superb singing and smart staging illuminate Britten’s coronation opera

English National Opera’s one-off performance of Britten’s uneven opera was very fine in every respect, with Christine Rice an exceptional Elizabeth I

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