Composer of the Month – What to listen to: Benjamin Britten

Last week I wrote about the work of English composer, Benjamin Britten. But of course, while it is interesting to hear about a composer’s life and the events going on in the world that shape and influence their music, this is no substitute for actually listening to the music they have written. So, where would you start with Benjamin Britten’s works?

Handily, I have put together a playlist of some suggested pieces to listen to over on Spotify. I have linked to that playlist below so you can go straight over to Spotify from this post if you want to. I have listed the pieces on the playlist below, so if you don’t have Spotify you can look these pieces up on your streaming service of choice.

In making this playlist, I have tried to cover a number of different genres, or types, of composition so that you get a good flavour of his work. I start the playlist with the piece that is probably the most obvious for a blog all about getting kids into music: The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra. I end this playlist with his War Requiem, which is not his last work, but I feel that it works well to end a playlist with a work of music all about saying goodbye. As his works are often very large scale operas and choral works, I often include just a few of the songs that make up these works – otherwise my playlist would be about 16 hours long! But if you like the music I include here do look them up on whatever streaming service you like to use, and maybe even head to a concert featuring his work – those of you who follow me on social media will probably know already that I sing in a choir who are performing Britten’s Ceremony of Carols in early December this year. If you live nearby (to Kings Heath in Birmingham), you may want to come along. Further details can be found by clicking on the link below:

Notorious sings Britten Ceremony of Carols

So without further ado, and in no particular order, other than the order in which I happened to add them into the playlist, here are the pieces in my Benjamin Britten Suggested listening playlist:

You can listen to the playlist in whole, or in part (if you fancy listening to the whole thing be warned it is 1 hour 45 long, so not my longest playlist by any stretch, but plenty long enough!) by following this link to my Spotify playlist:

If you have enjoyed reading my blog post, thank you. I am always looking for ideas for the blog, so would love to hear from you with suggestions for topics you would like me to cover in the future. Also, if you would be interested in supporting me to keep this blog running, buying the books to review here, and supplies to make the DIY instruments, for example, I would be absolutely delighted if you would consider buying me a coffee using the following link: Buy Me A Coffee Thank you!!