7
Britten at Keble
This year the country is celebrating the
centenary of the birth of composer
Benjamin Britten. Here at Keble we have
been enjoying a year of musical events
that celebrate his work and acknowledge
the role that his partner, alumnus Peter
Pears (1928), played in the composer’s
life. A series of
Britten at Keble
events has
also demonstrated some of the superb
musical talent currently flourishing here.
On 13 April we had a study day devoted
to Peter Pears, organised by Director
of Music Simon Whalley and Nicholas
Cleobury and led by Humphrey Burton
and Ian Partridge with master-classes,
talks and a concert in Chapel. Britten’s
remarkable writing for voices, alongside his
subtle insights into text setting, is central
to his musical personality and our series
of events reflects how important voice
and song were to him. In the performance
of
Saint Nicolas
, Op. 42 by the University
Student Chorus – under the baton of
Henshall Organ Scholar Richard Dawson
– on Monday 4 March we celebrated
Britten’s enthusiasm for composing with
musical amateurs in mind, and similarly
in June the Chapel was packed for two
performances of
Noye’s Fludde
, Op. 59 by
Magdalen College School. On his birthday
itself, 22 November - coincidentally the
feast day for the patron saint of music –
The Henry Ley Singers will join with local
vocal ensemble Musica Figurata and sing a
45-minute late-evening concert in Chapel
at 9.00pm including his
Hymn to St Cecilia
,
Op. 27.
As a further celebration of his vocal music,
across the course of the year we shall have
heard all of Britten’s folksong settings,
performed by the College’s Choral
Scholars. The composer wrote eight books
of these spanning his life, from the first
set written in the early 1940s while in the
USA to the last, written in June of his last
year 1976, when he was very ill. Most of
these arrangements are for solo voice and
piano but book six is for voice and guitar
– Julian Bream was the original player
of these – and in the last two books the
accompaniment was for harp, since Britten
was unable to perform the piano by this
stage because of a debilitating stroke. It
has been wonderful for the young singers
to get to know such favourites as
The
Salley Gardens
,
The Ash Grove
and
Oliver
Cromwell lay buried and dead
. We were
especially fortunate that the College’s
singing teacher, former Choral Scholar
Rebecca Outram (1986), began the series
of concerts with a master-class and then a
recital of Britten’s first book of folksongs.
It was excellent to hear Rebecca’s insights
into the music as well as to witness
first-hand the subtle and caring technical
and musical support that she gives to
the singers here. The recitals have been
accompanied by organ scholars Richard
Dawson (2011) and James Hardie (2012),
pictured here accompanying Claire Hogg
(2008) as well as by Simon Whalley.
You can hear a song from Claire’s recital
Simon Whalley
Director of Music
Choral Scholar Claire Hogg
(2008) accompanied
by Organ Scholar James
Hardie (2012)
