Britten: Serenade, Les Illuminations & Nocturne

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Best of all is Nocturne, more spartan and enigmatic, about which he makes some very perceptive comments and where he seems more engaged; the anguished 'Prelude' is fiercely impressive. So are... — BBC Music Magazine, November 2005, 3 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 17th Oct 2005
Catalogue No: 5580492
Label: Warner Classics
Length: 74 minutes

Gramophone Magazine

December 2005

Disc of the Month
Penguin Guide

Rosette

Britten: Les illuminations, Op. 18

Work length22:40

$10.00

$13.00

Ian Bostridge (tenor)
Berliner Philharmoniker
Sir Simon Rattle
Recorded: 2005-04-10
Recording Venue: 4th, 9-10th April 2005, Jesus Christus Kirche, Dahlem, Berlin

I. Fanfare

Track length1:55

$1.00

$1.30

II. Villes

Track length2:28

$1.00

$1.30

IIIa. Phrase

Track length1:01

$1.00

$1.30

IIIb. Antique

Track length2:05

$1.00

$1.30

IV. Royauté

Track length1:39

$1.00

$1.30

V. Marine

Track length0:59

$1.00

$1.30

VI. Interlude

Track length2:33

$1.00

$1.30

VII. Being Beauteous

Track length4:03

$1.00

$1.30

VIII. Parade

Track length2:56

$1.00

$1.30

IX. Départ

Track length3:01

$1.00

$1.30

Britten: Serenade for Tenor, Horn & Strings, Op. 31

Work length23:58

$8.00

$10.40

Ian Bostridge (tenor), Radek Baborák (french horn)
Berliner Philharmoniker
Sir Simon Rattle
Recorded: 2005-04-10
Recording Venue: 4th, 9-10th April 2005, Jesus Christus Kirche, Dahlem, Berlin

Prologue

Track length1:44

$1.00

$1.30

Pastoral (Charles Cotton)

Track length3:25

$1.00

$1.30

Nocturne (Alfred, Lord Tennyson)

Track length3:35

$1.00

$1.30

Elegy (William Blake)

Track length3:52

$1.00

$1.30

Dirge (anon. 15th century)

Track length3:16

$1.00

$1.30

Hymn (Ben Jonson)

Track length2:04

$1.00

$1.30

Sonnet (John Keats)

Track length3:57

$1.00

$1.30

Epilogue

Track length2:05

$1.00

$1.30

Britten: Nocturne, Op. 60 for tenor, obbligato instruments and strings

Work length28:03

$8.00

$10.40

Ian Bostridge (tenor)
Berliner Philharmoniker
Sir Simon Rattle
Recorded: 2005-04-10
Recording Venue: 4th, 9-10th April 2005, Jesus Christus Kirche, Dahlem, Berlin

Prometheus Unbound (Shelley)

Track length3:21

$1.00

$1.30

The Kraken (Tennyson)

Track length3:18

$1.00

$1.30

The Wanderings of Cain (Coleridge)

Track length2:37

$1.00

$1.30

Blurt, Master Constable (Middleton)

Track length2:19

$1.00

$1.30

The Prelude (1805) (Wordsworth)

Track length3:09

$1.00

$1.30

The Kind Ghosts (Owen)

Track length5:12

$1.00

$1.30

Sleep and Poetry (Keats)

Track length3:25

$1.00

$1.30

Sonnet 43 (Shakespeare)

Track length4:42

$1.00

$1.30

Reviews
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Reviews

November 2005

Best of all is Nocturne, more spartan and enigmatic, about which he makes some very perceptive comments and where he seems more engaged; the anguished 'Prelude' is fiercely impressive. So are Rattle and the Berlin players, throughout - almost glassily beautiful, without being overly cool, and quite passionately paced.

2010

This recording offers a profoundly considered and technically immaculate traversal of Britten's three great and varied cycles for tenor and orchestra, conceived with Pears's voice in mind.
Authoritative as the recordings by composer and tenor may be, there is plenty of room for new insights into such complex and inspired scores.
Bostridge's particular gift for lighting texts from within, and projecting so immediately their images, comes into its own arrestingly in the Nocturne. With his vocal agility and vital word-painting at their most assured – allied to surely the most virtuoso account of the obbligato parts yet heard, and Rattle supremely alert – this reading sets a standard hard to equal. Add a perfectly balanced recording and you have an ideal result.
Not that the accounts of the earlier cycles are far behind in going to the heart of the matter.
Bostridge catches all the fantasy and irony of Lesilluminations and projects the text with a biting delivery that stops just the right side of caricature.
Rattle and his orchestra are once again aware of Britten's subtleties of rhythm and instrumentation.
The Serenade, most easily accessible of the three works, demonstrates the advantages of recording after live performances. Everything seems fresh-minted and immediate, nowhere more so than in Radek Baborák's bold yet sensitive horn playing. Some of the verbal overemphases that are now part of Bostridge's vocal persona might not have been approved by the composer but for the most part they second the plangent beauty of his voice, which is evident throughout these very personal and satisfying interpretations. Bostridge writes illuminating notes in the booklet, too, adding to the disc's value.

December 2005

Tenor, conductor and orchestra combine to offer inspired readings. Bostridge's particular gift for lighting texts from within, and projecting so immediately their images, comes into its own arrestingly in the Nocturne. With his vocal agility and vital word-painting at their most assured - allied to surely the most virtuoso account of the obbligato parts yet heard, and Rattle supremely alert - this reading sets a standard hard to equal. Add a perfectly balanced recording and you have an ideal result.

2010

Bostridge proves an ideal interpreter of Britten's often taxing orchestral song-cycles...With Radek Baborák playing the horn obbligato with wonderful sophistication in the Serenade, the clarity of each of these masterly works is enhanced... Bostridge's word-painting is masterly throughout, matching the example of Peter Pears.

March 2014

inspired performances by Ian Bostridge, Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic. The acclaimed Czech horn-player Radek Baborák matches Bostridge's eloquence in the Serenade, and the obbligato roles in the Nocturne are done with all the poise and panache one would expect from principals of this fine orchestra.

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Britten: Serenade, Les Illuminations & Nocturne

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