Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears Recital - Riverside Studios 1964 Part 1

[@malacca1951]

A year after Britten died, I knocked on the door of the Red House in Aldeburgh to ask if I could take some photos of the house and spent an afternoon chatting with PP. We talked about Shostakovich, Kathleen Ferrier, War Requiem, Huddersfield Choral Society and Peter Grimes. I wish iPhones had been around then as I only have a simple photo of us outside the famous garden gate! A wonderful day full of both happy and sad memories.

[@mckavitt13]

What a pianist Britten was!! Am sooo impressed.

[@shauniavis1551]

Britten's playing is effortless. I'm not sure we will ever see the like of him again, either as a composer or pianist.

[@mckavitt13]

@@shauniavis1551 I dunno about effortless. He had studied all he played w great intellectual care & knew Peter’s interpretation down to every intake of breath. No such accompanist ever existed before nor will exist hence, I fear. Although we heard a wonderful Chinese pianist here in France accompany a group of young singers. We all noticed pretty quickly this guy’s extraordinary talent. He was better than all the singers put together. But another Britten? Probably not.

[@PM_ME_MESSIAEN_PICS]

@@mckavitt13 well, it's not like the young pianists can be bothered to play lieder accompaniment

[@matthieulelievre469]

40 years of love between these two men

[@timothytikker3834]

Um, so why did they start this recital with "Man Is for Woman Made"?

[@matthieulelievre469]

@@timothytikker3834 sense of irony? ;)

[@mckavitt13]

37 years, altho' I think Pears was smitten for some time before his belovèd.

[@mckavitt13]

@@timothytikker3834 For the smiles? Inside humour.

[@timothytikker3834]

@@matthieulelievre469 could well be!

[@dianeforti8696]

A transcendent duo. Exquisite pleasure.

[@robinmiric2027]

What a class act; ultimate exponents of the English folk song!

[@mckavitt13]

Pears' speaking voice is also a delight. And he wrote ✍ marvellously too.

[@LANCSKID]

But then, so do I … 🤵‍♂️

[@saltburner2]

Indeed it was, perfect diction whether speaking or singing.

[@teddavidson]

Of course the very first line brought a smile...

[@Butlinsgvn6]

Incredible. So much affection for these songs

[@francoisemendousse-pineau6404]

C'est très beau tout simplement!

[@AllenJones-w3p]

Sir Peter Pears had a unique, distinctive voice.

[@lordwilksy]

Utterly adorable

[@HenriMesquida]

Merveilleux.

[@phwbooth]

In their spare time, they modelled cardigans.

[@sgnmath1234]

I liked them and immediately noticed them. Was I paying attention to the wrong thing ?

[@LANCSKID]

I model underwear … and I can sing a fair ditty which is why I am so popular with the ladies down at the White Lion Social … 🧔

[@auburnsynge-perrin6075]

Ha ha - But not terribly successfully, I think.

[@RichardASalisbury1]

Song no. 3, "woman as deceiver"? This song, and especially Britten's arrangement here, which I've heard many times, is probably the most beautiful and poignant folk song I've ever heard, and here most beautifully performed. But I always heard it as the woman seduced and abandoned by the man; she's probably pregnant. ("I leaned my back up against an oak, thinking it a trusty tree": already heavy in body.) There do seem to be no explicit indications of gender among the words here, but looking in Wikipedia, the oldest version cited (1724) is clearly a woman's lament. What do others think?

[@7H7GRm8jm4QCnjuQ]

It definitely can be both but if you watch closely this whole first section is set up as a critique of homophobia and sexuality roles. As Pears says following the first song, “There’s no doubt Henry Purcell was convinced of the truth of the title of his song, “MAN is for the WOMAN made,” but we’re going to shed some light on that eternal riddle.” In other words, we’re going to ask whether man is made for woman or not. The Foggy Foggy Dew concerns a bachelor who becomes a single father, and “A” jilted lover sings about “woman as deceiver,” before they finish the section conventionally, in a song about a “faithful woman.” To close the section of the programme, Pears says, apparently trying not to laugh, “So much for love, and man being made for the woman.” At this time it was a very open secret that Britten and Pears lived together not just as artistic collaborators but as romantic and life partners.

[@7H7GRm8jm4QCnjuQ]

There’s really quite a bit more to say about the way Britten composes music to play with the gender identity of Pears’ voice. His family members were quoted as saying Pears’ singing voice sounded just like the singing voice of Britten’s mother. It’s no accident that Pears, though playing “Male” Chorus in Lucretia, soothes the “Female” Chorus in his last lines, “It is not all.” In my reading, the Choruses who “as two observers stand between this present audience and that scene” stand in for Britten and Pears themselves, watching WWII play out from America, which is the allegory of Lucretia (later further explored in the War Requiem, “he would not so, and slew his son and half the seed of Europe one by one”). Although Pears is a male character in the role, he sings as a mother comforting the “female” Britten, who despairs at what he has seen. It is not the only way in which Britten took the “feminine” role between them, for example Pears would boast that he topped. Britten even played the wife who turns a blind eye, as Pears allegedly took lovers all over the world, which Britten accepted as long as he knew nothing about it. I’d have to do more research to go more into it but Pears playing a female role as via this song would be the least strange thing to me. Britten’s entire opus plays with gender in this way

[@mckavitt13]

I agree w you. They changed it quite deliberately to suit their mischievous purposes.

[@SuperMelvyn]

What if the vibrato isn't quite under control and the voice itself is a little peculiar, these performances exude a love of the art of singing that is more precious than mere perfection. And for sheer perfection we also have the sensitive, subtle accompaniments of Britten. I have a feeling that the words of the Purcell have been cleaned up. I remember "princess" as something more gross...

[@shauniavis1551]

Have you actually listened to the recital? Nobody in history has more control than Pears, particularly in combination with Britten's effortless playing. You must have an axe to grind.

[@paulwagner688]

I was actually told when I began my voice lessons to listen to Peter Pears for technique and style.

[@ThomasDawkins88]

Pears has the most impeccable diction of any singer you can find. Every word perfectly understandable.

[@rubengreenberg2253]

plus his legato-incomparable!

[@penmerch2804]

0:11 Pears started just before Britten was actually ready!

[@prince.mushroom]

show me better song singing than this. I'll fight you.

[@mathersdavid5113]

Pears-a singer with no voice at all but great artistry.

[@auburnsynge-perrin6075]

Pears did have a voice but I feel it went off in later years - no doubt responding to Britten's wish that it should be more butch. Pears himself admitted he wouldn't have anything like the career he did if not for Britten. For all we know he might have remained a chorus boy with the BBC singers!

[@mckavitt13]

In the 1st song, Britten tries (unsuccessfully) to dramatise, by slowing up the ending, this song. Surprising that Pears wasn't cooperating. V. rare occurrence. Still lovely interpretations. The small public is pathetically even smaller in the expression of its appreciation for these two great artists. Shame on them!

[@shauniavis1551]

Britten never does anything unsuccessfully. That will just be your lack of education.

[@thetoynbeeconvector]

And it was a group of friends, who didn't have to show anything. I recognise two of them. Their pleasure is very obvious.

[@johnrandolph6121]

I'm not sure what you're talking about. Pears stretches the last line was well. They did this song a lot and that's the way they always did it.

[@mckavitt13]

@@thetoynbeeconvector I recognise more than two. Still, no reason not to show appreciation.

[@mckavitt13]

@@shauniavis1551 It isn’t lack of education in any way. I have everything by & about Britten, adore the man. But sorry to have offended you to the point where you felt you had to insult me.

[@ahnn5962]

Were they trying to hide who they actually were from the public by this program??

[@auburnsynge-perrin6075]

No I don't think so. Even at my Catholic prep school we knew Britten & Pears were 'married' to each other. But it was hard to keep a straight face when my violin teacher, a nun in her seventies, kept bemoaning 'Britten's queer chords' when rehearsing us in 'Noye's fludde'. Most trad old British folk songs are about heterosexual love, or death. I prefer Pears' light lyric tenor in recordings of English Elizabethan lute songs with Julian Bream. But this was obviously how Britten wanted his arrangements performed.

[@pierrelangedoc5292]

Ok for its time but this kind of singing is so hopelessly dated now most will agree i think.Times have changed.

[@dianeforti8696]

Goodness! What, pray, would you prefer?

[@pierrelangedoc5292]

@@dianeforti8696 Marco Beasley singing Si Dolce Tormento

[@dianeforti8696]

@@pierrelangedoc5292 Thank you. I will check it out. :)

[@Vacaiable]

@@pierrelangedoc5292 I just listened to Marco Beasley singing Si Dolce Tormento. I agree with you he sings wonderfully. So many thanks.

[@LANCSKID]

At least ol’ Petey isn’t cupping either of his ears, eh, Ewan?

[@theclassclown6477]

It's rubbish

[@LANCSKID]

Foggy, Foggy Dew was banned by the BBC for being “too suggestive” … and quite right too! 🥸