Search - Benjamin Britten, Steuart Bedford, English Chamber Orchestra :: Benjamin Britten: Symphony for Cello & Orchestra; Death in Venice Suite

Entrancing Beauty

Mark Jordan | Gambier, Ohio, USA | 12/20/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Britten's Cello Symphony is an excellent work... But, frankly, having had this disc now for over five years, I still can't get past the suite that Steuart Bedford arranged from Britten's final opera "Death In Venice," shortly after Britten's death. I have never heard any other music which manages to be both so perfectly poised and at the same time so emotionally powerful. As far as I can figure, the only reason this hasn't become one of the most famous pieces of "classical" music of the last hundred years is because of the (ahem!) controversial subject matter of Thomas Mann's original story which was of course the basis for Britten's opera. But beauty is a rare and wondrous thing, and you won't find a more entrancing evocation of it than in this astounding instrumental suite. One of those pieces that stays in the heart. Highest recommendation."

Benjamin Britten's Venice

Grady Harp | Los Angeles, CA United States | 01/01/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Though this recording has been around for ten years it remains one of the finest comments on the brilliance of the works of Sir Benjamin Britten. The very eloquent Symphony for Cello and Orchestra is warmly performed by Raphael Wallfisch in close collaboration with Steuart Bedford and the English Chamber Orchestra. This reading may not have the fire of the Rostropovich recording, but it is closer to the symphonic quality of a work that features the cello but almost in an obbligato role.



The real reason to make this particular recording part of your library is the Suite from the opera DEATH IN VENICE, the last major composition by Britten, compiled by Steuart Bedford. A daunting task, this, finding elements to create a suite out of a score that is so very much of a cohesive work as an opera, yet Bedford's intelligent selection of moments from the opera act as an outsider's observations of the significant moments of the opera: Summons to Venice, Overture to Venice, First Beach Scene, Tadzio, I love you, Pursuit, and Second Beach Scene and Death. The orchestra performs with uncanny clarity, as supportive of the crystalLine encounters as well as the surging undercurrents.



For those who have yet to see or hear a production of the opera DEATH IN VENICE this superb recording will serve as a fine introduction. Hearing the orchestral Suite without the benefit of the voices proves yet again that Benjamin Britten is one of the more important composers of the past century. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp, January 2005"