See/Hear

Benjamin Britten was born in 1913 into a solidly middle-class family in Suffolk, England. Britten’s mother, Edith, did her best to hide the family’s several black sheep – her alcoholic mother, her illegitimate father, and her agnostic husband – by holding musical soirees at their home. These events allowed the Brittens to rub shoulders with the right people outside of church, which Mr. Britten staunchly refused to attend. Much to Edith’s delight, young Benjamin showed an intense interest in the musical gatherings, beginning to compose his own pieces at age 5, starting piano lessons at age 7, and taking up the viola at age 10. By the age of 14, Britten was making regular trips to London for formal composition lessons with Frank Bridge, to whom the Sinfonietta Op. 1 is dedicated.

Britten wrote the Sinfonietta during the summer of 1932, when he was an 18-year old student at the Royal College of Music. While only his first numbered opus, this piece shows that Britten had already developed a distinct voice. One avid Britten blogger describes the Sinfonietta thus: “The seeds of Britten’s incredibly descriptive musical mind are shown here, in a way that was to become ever more relevant in his writing for stage and screen” (for more apt observations, visit goodmorningbritten.wordpress.com.  

The Sinfonietta is scored for wind quintet, string quartet, and bass, which allows the 45^th Parallel Universe to draw from its constituent groups. A revised version from 1936 adds a second horn and calls for a larger string section, but we felt that presenting the original Opus 1 was a poignant way to start off our own journey – after all, tonight’s concert is Helios Camerata’s very own Opus 1.

– Martha Long