Benjamin Britten BRITTEN TO AMERICA music for radio and theatre Samuel West, narrator ~ Andrew Kennedy, tenor Jean Rigby, mezzo soprano ~ Mary Carewe, mezzo soprano Ex Cathedra ~ Jeffrey Skidmore ~ Huw Watkins, piano Hallé ~ Sir Mark Elder, conductor - Harry Ogg, assistant conductor NMC D190 What better way to mark the end of Britten's centenary than release some unrecorded works, the majority of which haven't been heard since they were performed in the 1940s.   This is Britten with a difference - there are large sections of blues, jazz, a 'Tibetan' chant, a Bach chorale and even a ukulele number! Britten made the hazardous journey from the United States back to England in the spring of 1942.   Within a few weeks he had faced a Tribunal exempting him from military service as a conscientious objector.   In his statement to the Tribunal he had said “I believe sincerely that I can help my fellow human beings best, by continuing the work I am best qualified to do,” and almost immediately he began giving concerts with Peter Pears in towns, rural villages and prisons.   He also wrote three major scores for radio propaganda programmes: First Appointment, a BBC drama set in an internment camp in France: then An American in England, six programmes about wartime conditions in England produced by the BBC for live transmission in the USA by CBS; and lastly Britain to America, three programmes as part of a weekly transmission by NBC.   The last of these was completed by January 1943; in spite of the speed with which they were written, the music is elaborate and dramatic - the composer is clearly limbering up for Peter Grimes, whose libretto was evolving during this period. • Britten first met Dennis Brain who was playing as principal horn of the RAF Orchestra in An American in England.   “I took every opportunity to write elaborate horn solos,” Britten said.   A few months later he had composed the Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings. • The British actor Samuel West has appeared in the movies Van Helsing, Iris, Notting Hill, Howard's End and Jane Eyre; he is frequently seen on stage for the Royal Shakespeare Company and also regularly heard in radio dramas. The Ascent of F6     32'50 Incidental music • text by W H Auden & Christopher Isherwood [  1.] Overture     4'05 [  2.] Entr'actes for Mr & Mrs A.     0'46 [  3.] Entr'acte and Gunn's Song: ‘The chimney sweepers’ +     1'20 [  4.] Ransom: ‘0 brothers!’     5'05 [  5.] Pantomime*     2'06 [  6.] Mother's Song: ‘Michael, you shall be renowned’ *     2'06 [  7.] Act II Prelude     1'30 [  8.] Chant     1'01 |  9.] Climbing Music     0'24 [10.] Gunn's Song: ‘Some have tennis-elbow’ +     0'34 [11.] Climbing Music     0'35 [12.] Cabaret Jazz Song: ‘Forget the dead’     1'40 [13.] Ransom: ‘0 senseless hurricanes’     0'52 [14.] Funeral March and Chorus: ‘No news.’     0'49 [15.| Blues: ‘Stop all the clocks’     3'18 [16.] Mother's Song with Chorus: ‘Acts of injustice done’ *     4'23 [17.] Chorale: ‘Free now from indignation’     2'16 Jean Rigby mezzo-soprano * Andrew Kennedy tenor + Ex Cathedra • Jeffrey Skidmore conductor Samuel West narrator/ Ransom Mervyn Cooke, Lucy Walker piano Nigel Woodhouse ukulele Matthew Dickinson percussion An American in England     1730 From the BBC/CBS Radio series [18.] London by Clipper (Programme 1)     1'24 [19.] Dover to London (Programme 2)     1'20 [20.] Ration Island (Programme 3)     1'16 [21.] Women of Britain (Programme 4): ‘London’     2'42 [22.] Women of Britain: ‘You walk down to a part of the city’     1'51 [23.] Women of Britain: ‘Warren. To my dearly beloved boy’     3'19 [24.] Women of Britain: ‘It's a beautiful August morning’     0'43 [25.] Women of Britain: ‘Within 50 yards’     1'22 [26.] Women of Britain: ‘Your first factory’     1'29 [27.] Women of Britain: ‘After the last war’     0'30 [28.] Women of Britain: ‘You set out for a training camp’     1'34 Samuel West narrator Hallé • Sir Mark Elder conductor [29.] Roman Wall Blues     2'19 From Hadrian's Wall - text WH Auden Mary Carewe mezzo-soprano • Huw Watkins piano On the Frontier Incidental music - text by WH Auden & Christpher Isherwood [30.] Overture     0'50 [31.] Adiibitum     1'24 [32.] Chorus: ‘The clock on the wall gives an electric tick’     4'07 [33.] Prisoner's Monologue: ‘Industrialists, bankers, in comfortable chairs’     2'10 [34.] Fanfare, Act I scene i     0'38 [35.] Moderate, after Act I scene i     0'26 [36.] Fanfare, Act III scene ii     1'08 [37.] Chorus: Marching Songs - ‘Brightly the sun on our weapons is gleaming’     1 '23 [38.] Chorus: Ostnian National Anthem     0'25 [39.] Chorus: Waltz - ‘The papers say there'll be war before long’     4'33 [40.] Chorus: Journalists' Song - ‘We fly to a cabinet crisis’     0'52 [41.] Interlude after Act III scene ii     2'52 [42.] End Chorus:‘To build a city’     2'32 Samuel West narrator Ex Cathedra • Jeffrey Skidmore conductor Jonathan Holland, Bruce Nockles trumpet Mervyn Cooke, Lucy Walker piano Matthew Dickinson percussion [43.] Where do we go from here?     2'06 Text by Lewis MacNeice - from the BBC/NBC Radio Series Britain to America Mary Carewe mezzo-soprano • Hallé • Harry Ogg conductor Total timing     78'41 NMC Recordings are distributed in Australia by Rockian Trading, P.O.Box 44, Briar Hill, Vic, 3088, Australia Telephone (03) 9432 4149 ~ Facsimile (03) 9444 6879