Carlo Maria Giulini - Britten: Four Sea Interludes (1964) [2015] Hi-Res

Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) was living in “exile” (on Long Island) from his native England due to the
Nazi assaults when he became smitten with the poetic works of George Crabbe (1754-1832). Britten was
particularly taken with Crabbe’s The Borough (1810), which tells of life in a Suolk shing village and of
the outcast Peter Grimes. When Serge Koussevitzky asked Britten the following winter why he had
composed no operas, the young composer spoke of the cost of such a project, and Koussevitzky promptly
commissioned an opera from him. Britten returned to England in April 1942, armed with this commission
and red by a new passion for his native Suolk. He composed Peter Grimes in 1944-45, and its première
in June 1945 was a triumph. The opera is based on the deadly collision between a shing village called
The Borough–which represents convention, religion, law, and a great deal of smugness–and Grimes, an
outcast, violent, perhaps demented, yet longing for acceptance by the community he despises
The opera is in three acts, and as preludes to the acts or as interludes between scenes Britten composed
six orchestral interludes, brief mood-pieces designed to set a scene, establish a mood, or hint at
character. Even before the opera had been produced, Britten assembled an orchestral suite made up of
four of these, which he called Sea Interludes, and led the London Philharmonic Orchestra in its première
on June 14, 1945.
The opera opens with a Prologue, The Borough’s investigation into the death of Grimes’ previous
apprentice William Sprode, and at its conclusion comes the rst interlude, Dawn, which functions as the
prelude to the opera. Here is gray daybreak on the bleak Suolk coast, evoked by the high, clear, pure
sound of unison utes and violins. This is haunting, evocative music, full of the cries of sea birds, the hiss
of surf across rocky beaches, and–menacing in the deep brass–the swell of the sea itself. Sunday
Morning, the prelude to Act 2, opens with the sound of church bells pealing madly in the horns and
woodwinds. The strings have the theme Ellen Orford sings in praise of the sunny sea: “Glitter of waves /
And glitter of sunlight / Bid us rejoice / And lift our hearts high.” Moonlight is the prelude to Act 3–its
portrait of the tranquil sea is broken by splashes of sound from ute, xylophone, and harp. The
concluding Storm actually comes from early in the opera: a depiction of a storm that strikes the coast, it
forms the musical interlude between Scenes 1 and 2 of the opening act. The violence of the opening gives
way to a more subdued central section before the storm breaks out again and drives the music to its
powerful close. Britten noted that “ . . . my life as a child was colored by the erce storms that sometimes
drove ships on our coast and ate away whole stretches of neighboring clis. In writing Peter Grimes, I
wanted to express my awareness of the perpetual struggle of men and women whose livelihood depends
on the sea.”
Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell, Op. 34
In 1945, the Crown Film Unit commissioned Britten to compose the score for a lm designed to introduce
children to the orchestra. His great technical skill, imagination and understanding of young people (not
to mention adults, who will surely enjoy the music, too), made him a natural choice for the project. The
score was performed on the soundtrack of the lm by the London Symphony Orchestra under Sir Malcolm
Sargent.
Britten decided to set the piece in the form of a theme and variations. Being a great admirer of Henry
Purcell, a gifted seventeenth-century English composer, he chose as the theme the Rondeau from
Purcell’s incidental music for the play Abdelazar, or The Moor’s Revenge. It is rst stated by the full
orchestra, then in turn by each of the four major subsections: woodwinds, strings, brass and percussion.
Thirteen brief, tradition-oriented but polished and clever variations follow, each one spotlighting the
character of an individual instrument. Britten then launches a rollicking fugue on an original theme, the
instruments entering in the same order as they appeared in the variations. At the climax, Purcell’s noble
theme returns majestically in the brass.


Tracks:

Peter Grimes-Four Sea Interludes
1-Dawn
2-Sunday Morning
3-Moonlight
4-Storm
5-Variations And Fugue On A Theme Of Purcell Op.34

Personnel:

The Philharmonia Orchestra
Carlo Maria Giulini