Auden suggested that he take a look at the phantasmagorical poetry of Arthur Rimbaud (1854–91), Verlaine’s one-time lover (though their affair had ended badly, in an attempted murder for which Verlaine spent two years in jail). In fact, Les Illuminations was not Britten’s first foray into French just after graduating from high school, he had composed an orchestral song cycle on French texts by Victor Hugo and Paul Verlaine (the Quatre chansons françaises, 1928). Not many English composers had previously shown an interest in setting languages other than their own (Delius being a rare exception), and Britten took some fire from British critics who felt that setting French texts was at least suspicious and perhaps even unpatriotic. The earliest of these was the Swiss soprano Sophie Wyss, who premiered such entries in the Britten catalogue as Our Hunting Fathers (1936) and On This Island (1937), and was also the inspiration for his arrangements of French folksongs (1942) and for the orchestral song cycle on this program, Les Illuminations (1939). Among these, the tenor Peter Pears was Britten’s chief partner (both artistic and spousal), but other singer-collaborators were also important. Britten often wrote vocal works with specific singers in mind over the years, an identifiable “Britten circle” of singers dependably premiered and championed his works. THE BACKSTORY Though Benjamin Britten was an instrumentalist, having been trained as a string player and excelling especially as a pianist, singers flocked around him throughout his career. INSTRUMENTATION: String orchestra with solo high voice (soprano or tenor-here the former) Soprano Jessica Jones was soloist with Yan Pascal Tortelier conducting SFS PERFORMANCES: FIRST AND ONLY-March 2003. WORLD PREMIERE: The movements “ Being Beauteous” and “ Marine” were introduced on August 17, 1939, at the London Proms at Queen’s Hall, by soprano Sophie Wyss with Sir Henry Wood conducting Wyss was also the soloist when the complete song cycle was premiered on January 30, 1940, at Aeolian Hall, London, with the Boyd Neel Orchestra.
BORN: November 22, 1913, in Lowestoft, Suffolk, EnglandĭIED: December 4, 1976, in Aldeburgh, SuffolkĬOMPOSED: Begun March 1939 in Suffolk, completed October 1939 in Amityville, Long Island
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