Table of Contents

List of Plates
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
I. 1936-45 'Oh but the unloved have had power'
1: Soviet Opera at B.B.C. Shostakowitch's 'Lady Macbeth' (1936)
2: Wireless Concerts lose Edward Clarke (1936)
3: BBC Programming: Holst, Vaughan Williams and Poulenc (1936)
4: 'As You Like It' Walton's Music (1936)
5: American Impressions (?1940)
6: An English Composer Sees America (1940)
7: On Film Music (c. 1940-1)
8: England and the Folk-Art Problem
9: Au Revoir to the U.S.A. (1942)
10: On Behalf of Gustav Mahler (1942)
11: Statement to the Local Tribunal for the Registration of Conscientious Objectors (1942)
12: Appeal to the Appellate Tribunal (1942)
13: How a musical work originates (1942)
14: Conversation with Benjamin Britten (1944)
15: Speech to the International Arts Guild (c.1944)
16: Vienna (1945)
17: Peter Grimes (1945)
18: 250th Anniversary of the death of Henry Purcell (1945)
II. 1946-55 'This region of sin that you find you in, But are not of'
19: Sinfonia da Requiem (1946)
20: The Rape of Lucretia (1946)
21: The Artist and His Medium: Composer and Listener (1946)
22: An Opera is Planned (1947)
23: Frank Bridge and English Chamber Music (1947)
24: The Rape of Lucretia (1948)
25: Piano works by Frederic Chopin and Gabrial Faure (1949)
26: A New Centre for Music (1949)
27: UNESCO (1949)
28: Boyd Neel: The Story of an Orchestra (1950)
29: The Arts Council and Opera (1950)
30: Verdi - A Symposium (1951)
31: The Rape of Lucretia (?1951)
32: Dido and Aeneas (1951)
33: Freeman of Lowestoft (1951)
34: The Rise of English Opera (1951)
35: Arnold Schoenberg (1951)
36: Variations on a Critical Theme (1952)
37: Opera Diary: The Marriage of Figaro (1952)
38: Three Premieres (1954)
39: Serenade for tenor, horn and strings (1954)
40: The Physician's Folly (1955)
41: The Aldeburgh Festival (1955)
III. 1956-65 'All a poet can do today is warn'
42: Britten's Method of Composing (1956)
43: British Culture Abroad (1956)
44: Britten and South East Asia (1956)
45: The Composer Speaks (1957)
46: To the Music Lovers of Japan (1957)
47: Dennis Brain 1921-1957 (1958)
48: Television and The Turn of the Screw (1959)
49: Paul Beck 1895-1958 (1959)
50: On Purcell's Dido and Aeneas (1959)
51: On Realizing the Continuo in Purcell's Songs (1959)
52: Back to Britain with Britten (1959)
53: People Today: Benjamin Britten (1960)
54: A New Britten Opera (1960)
55: A Midsummer Night's Dream (1960)
56: Brighton Philarmonic Society (1960)
57: Discussion with Billy Budd (1960)
58: On Writing English Opera (1960)
59: Britten and Pears in Canada (1961)
60: Speech on Receiving Honorary Degree at Hull University (1962)
61: Freedom of Borough of Aldeburgh (1962)
62: Erwin Stein: Form and Performance (1962)
63: A Tribute to Wilfrid Owen (?1963)
64: Imogen Holst: An ABC of Music (1963)
65: British Composers in Interview: Benjamin Britten (1963)
66: The Artist - to the People (1963)
67: On Pravda, Art and Criticism (1963)
68: Address to Kesgrave Heath School, Ipswich (1963)
69: An Interview (1963)
70: Britten Looking Back (1963)
71: Francis Poulenc 1899-1963 (1964)
72: On Receiving the First Aspen Award (1964)
73: Musician of the Year (1964)
74: British Music in the World Today (1964)
75: Tribute to Michael Tippett (1965)
76: Tribute to Zoltan Kodaly (1965)
77: Tribute to Jean Sibelius (1965)
78: Sibelius (II) (1965)
79: Dreams (?1965)
80: A Composer in Russia (1965)
IV. 1966-76 'My mind beats on'
81: Sir Arthur Bliss at 75 (1966)
82: Benjamin Britten talks to Edmund Tracey (1966)
83: Tribute to Dmitri Shostakovitch (1966)
84: Tribute to Zoltan Kodaly (1967)
85: An interview with Benjamin Britten (1967)
86: Britten and Pears (1967)
87: The Moral Responsibility of the Artist Toward his Fellow Man (1968)
88: Britten on Aldeburgh and the Future (1968)
89: On Receiving the Sonning Prize (1968)
90: Some Notes on Forster and Music (1969)
91: Mapreading (1969)
92: No Ivory Tower (1969)
93: Snape Maltings Fire (1969)
94: Idomeneo in Performance (1969)
95: Radcliffe Music Award (1969)
96: Money for the Maltings (1970)
97: Aaron Copland: Seventieth-Birthday Tribute (1970)
98: James Blades: Percussion Instruments and their History (1970)
99: Artist's Choice: Cecil Aronowitz (1970)
100: Therapy in Music For Handicapped Children (1971)
101: Anthony Gishford: Grand Opera (1972)
102: John Bird: Percy Grainger (1976)
103: Tribute to Paul Sacher (1976)
V. Introductory Notes to Britten's Music
VI. Introductory Notes to the Music of Other Composers

About the Author

Paul Kildea was born in Australia and studied at Melbourne and Oxford Universities, being awarded a doctorate from the latter in 1996. He has recently been appointed Director of the Britten-Pears Orchestra. In 1999 he was appointed by the Britten Estate to the position of Head of Music, Aldeburgh Productions.

Reviews

`Review from previous edition ... indispensable collection of writings and transcripts.'
Ian Bostridge, Times Literary Supplement
`This is a book that needed to be published and Britten fans will be delighted that it has been done so well.'
Alexander Waugh, Literary Review