Pubertat composer

On November 22, on the day of the Holy Cecilia, considered the patroness of music, there is a centenary of one of the anniversaries of this year - Benjamin Britten. The second in the history of England, the famous composer after Henry Persella, a friend of Shostakovich, Richter and Rostropovich, a successful defender of music from radical modernism of the twentieth century, a revitalizer of an opera genre, an example of ideal harmony in a personal and creative life, who passed with singer Peter Pierce. What can be said about Britten in addition to well -known facts? COLTA . Ru She turned to the composer Sergei Nevsky and Valtornist Vsevolod Mititello.

Sergey Nevsky

Britten, probably, one of the last universal composers, with the same return and at the same level, the high and applied music. His music, written for amateur choirs, may be no less valuable than operas or a “military requiem”. The gap between the culture of traditional, high and low for Britten has not yet taken place, and perhaps all his work - like a return from America to the English province - an attempt to prevent, delay this (inevitable) gap.

Stravinsky spoke of Schumann that he was a childhood composer. Britten - if you continue this metaphorical series - most likely a composer of puberty, transitional age, this is his inner age, his self -identification model. In almost all of his opera, teenage heroes act, with whom, as a rule, something is very gloomy. If the teenage hero towards the end of the opera of Britten and survives (“Death in Venice”), the plot, as a rule, leaves no reason for joy. The first opera opera that I saw on stage ( “Curlew River” ) and which was also performed in the twilight of the Dresden Cathedral, confirmed my worst fears about this author: if you are the hero of the opera Britten and you less than 18, then nothing good shines for you - they can kill before the start.

Therefore, the State Duma deputies, who tried to protect the Moscow public and the Horistan performers from "sleep on a summer night", perhaps they were right. Only taking into account the fact that all the heroes of the teenage of Britten are alter the ego of the composer, Britten had to protect Britten from himself, and the State Duma was clearly late with this.

The very subtle interconnection of Britten's music with a transitional age was felt by Wes Anderson, who accompanied his brightest film about the flight of two teenagers from the adult world ( Moonrise Kingdom ) with music from Noeva Ark, the Guide to the Orchestra and Songs from Friday Afternoons . " Actually, this film made me be interested in Britten's music, which in Germany, where I have been living for the past 20 years, alas, practically do not play.

Vsevolod Mititello

Opening Britten notes is always somewhat scary: you never know what awaits you there. He can write a trio for a tube and two flutes. It can let Solo Valtorn or Pipe. What is beautiful and, it would seem, easily sounds, sometimes requires huge performing efforts. For all the clarity of his scores, Britten does not give the performer any concessions. He always counts on the highest professional level. But this is behind the scenes, on the other side of the ramp, in the depths of the orchestra pit. Performer suffering reaches the listener with distilled, in transparent and colorful sounds.

Britten is perfect for those who, on the one hand, are expecting “beauty” from music, but do not want to fall out much from the 20th century and is ready to perceive some novelty. The educated listener will be interested in Britten's game with styles, a method of borrowing and swimming them in his own organic language. A beginner can please the visibility of musical images, the clarity of moods and the expressiveness of melodic lines.

The point here is that Britten is a tonal composer. In the later years, he used the same duodonal rows, but only on the occasion, as a strong figurative means. At the same time, Britten is not at all alien to the new phenomena in the music of the 20th century, but he paves the path unnoticed to them, smoothly, without losing his ears of the audience with completely unusual sounds. Often a couple of simple techniques, a comparison of two or three before the triviality of understandable elements, he creates something completely new and unexpected. The art of combination, expressiveness with stingy means and a tendency to matte colors are the main features of Britten handwriting.

Brittench and Prokofiev is close to Britten's musical language and is perceived easily. His “guide to the orchestra” is completely invariably decorated with children's philharmonic subscriptions. “Guide” - he is “variations and a fugue on the topic of Persella”, with which Britten connects a lot. Both composers have a taste for folk rhythms and dances, all these Horn Pipe and sailor's gigs. Over the years, Britten did Persella's songs. Britten the sense of language and country passed from them. His vocal works are inseparable from English prosodies, intonation, music of English speech. These are his kantikli, vocal plays on the texts of different authors, or “Michelangelo Sonces”, an example of English Bel Canto , as well as “Donna Sonnets”, English Lied .

England, its landscapes, the sea, its language, poetry are Britten themes. Four sea interlyudes from the opera Peter Grains is a kind of answer to Rimsky-Korsakov, an unsurpassed musical marinist. The sea theme forms the plot of the opera Billy Badd with its ship surroundings and powerful choirs of sailors. Britten is characterized by a special, English, gloomy sound - discreet, but sparkling flashes of amazingly found combinations; restrained, not blinding radicality, but calmly accepting all the achievements of his time.

Among other things, Britten is perhaps the most executable opera composer of the 20th century. He approached the respectable opera genre from different sides. Full -format "Peter Grains" and "Summer on a Summer Night" are adjacent to the modest compositions of the "abduction of Lucretia" and "Turn of the screw". Opera-accents for execution in the church: “Noah's Ark”, “Prodigal Son”. Operetta "Paul Banian." Opera for children, under the ensemble and under the piano. Vocal parties are expressive and present British English in all its glory. The orchestra in Britten opera is incredibly different, he is subject to almost Wagnerian sounds and chamber colors.

The centenary of Britten is an excellent occasion to sort out everything that he left us: an original opera theater; The sound of England is old and present; Modern, but at the same time affordable musical language, and think about: is it the perfect composer of the 20th century?