This cycle is underrated and needs performing more often. It uses words from several British poets on the subject of flowers and the earliest written one is an anonymous border ballad in 'middle English'. It is by no means 'catchy' and is difficult to perform, perhaps because there are so many lines, devices and challenging harmonies all in one perfect arch form work. Some have written that that Britten composed it mainly for musicians but the paced emergence of ravishing melodic sections is akin to some of Holst's part song settings and often overlooked choral works. Imogen Holst was a sort of organizing assistant to Britten when this was composed and remained loosely on the staff of the whole Snape Maltings project for her whole life aside from when she was abroad lecturing and conducting. Interestingly, Britten and Pears had revived her father's Humbert Wolfe song cycle around the time of Op.47 appearing. The occasion of the work was an anniversary of a couple who were important in promoting new as well as neglected music and they had a small estate with sizeable gardens dedicated mainly to hedges and endangered types of flowers. This context inspired Britten to compose the work with thematic glances back to Elgar, early Vaughan Williams and the neglected Parry and Stanford -- the latter two having been mainstays of choral and vocal music in their time, especially in the Three Choirs Festival project held in western English cathedrals along the Welsh border. In our time the '5 Flower Songs' are more likely to be heard in Nordic and north European countries whose choral traditions developed from the 1950s to glorious bounty now. Britten had spent some time in Denmark in the late 1950s and wrote to friends that new singing ways were emerging in the colder countries. The standard of performance we have here is an example of what Britten noticed was "in the air".
Outstanding performance. I’ve sung this many times and heard many recordings since 1973, never as clear and balanced as this. Thank you.
Thank you, it's our pleasure :)
＃ライブ会場映像の魅力、＃楽曲の演奏速度最高です。混声合唱はハーモニーも美しく抑揚があり感動しました。また複数のTVカメラ切り替えオペレーターの譜面が読めるスイッチャーのカメラ割り映像が素晴らしいですね。尚NDRは素晴らしいですね。❤️ありがとうございました。😊
＃ライブ会場映像の魅力、＃楽曲の演奏速度最高です。混声合唱はハーモニーも美しく抑揚があり感動しました。また複数のTVカメラ切り替えオペレーターの譜面が読めるスイッチャーのカメラ割り映像が素晴らしいですね。尚NDRは素晴らしいですね。❤️ありがとうございました。😊
Ausgezeichnet!!
Vielen Dank! 🤩😊
Wonderfull! with such as counterpoint , consonant and dissonant harmony, I've never heard it, it is the first time .THANKS...
Thank you very much :)
This is tremendous! is there a recording I can purchase?
Thank you, unfortunately not, but you can enjoy it here ✨
This cycle is underrated and needs performing more often. It uses words from several British poets on the subject of flowers and the earliest written one is an anonymous border ballad in 'middle English'.
It is by no means 'catchy' and is difficult to perform, perhaps because there are so many lines, devices and challenging harmonies all in one perfect arch form work. Some have written that that Britten composed it mainly for musicians but the paced emergence of ravishing melodic sections is akin to some of Holst's part song settings and often overlooked choral works. Imogen Holst was a sort of organizing assistant to Britten when this was composed and remained loosely on the staff of the whole Snape Maltings project for her whole life aside from when she was abroad lecturing and conducting. Interestingly, Britten and Pears had revived her father's Humbert Wolfe song cycle around the time of Op.47 appearing.
The occasion of the work was an anniversary of a couple who were important in promoting new as well as neglected music and they had a small estate with sizeable gardens dedicated mainly to hedges and endangered types of flowers.
This context inspired Britten to compose the work with thematic glances back to Elgar, early Vaughan Williams and the neglected Parry and Stanford -- the latter two having been mainstays of choral and vocal music in their time, especially in the Three Choirs Festival project held in western English cathedrals along the Welsh border.
In our time the '5 Flower Songs' are more likely to be heard in Nordic and north European countries whose choral traditions developed from the 1950s to glorious bounty now.
Britten had spent some time in Denmark in the late 1950s and wrote to friends that new singing ways were emerging in the colder countries.
The standard of performance we have here is an example of what Britten noticed was "in the air".
Thank you, @stephenhall3515, for sharing this deep insight! 🌟🌟🌟