Barbara Bonney: The complete "On this island Op. 11" (Britten)

[@mckavitt13]

Barbara Bonney... how lovely!

[@StuartSafford]

A beautiful piece by Benjamin Britten. I should say two beautiful pieces.

[@ternitamas]

Delightful! Thanks for the upload!!

[@JoanCrawfordEmmadora]

He loved a soprano until Peter came along. BP pieces were written for soprano voice. Love this one.

[@treesny]

Les Illuminations, Britten's wonderful Rimbaud cycle for voice and string orchestra, though now largely associated with tenors, was actually composed for soprano soloist (Sophie Wyss, I believe).

[@mimicai2152]

♥️♥️♥️

[@stephenhall3515]

Barbara Bonney has just the right voice for this masterpiece of construction, in which the sung parts "duet" with a seemingly divergent 'voice' in the piano writing. Unfortunately Martineau is no Benjamin Britten and, for some reason, the piano microphone levels in the third section fade down then never quite make it back. The composer would never have allowed that through and would, in any case, brought up the support element needed for the last few bars. Knob-twiddling by "engineers" and not very good piano work let down the singer's skill with a pastiche which seldom worked well. During 1940 to 1941 Britten pulled clear of Auden's bossiness (and lapse in poetical quality) and in later Auden settings the composer was confident enough to cut and re-shape lines from Auden's work, notably in the 'Spring Symphony' and the somewhat revised 'Our Hunting Fathers'.