Ruth Leon recommends… Britten – The Sorcerer’s Apprentice-Accompanist – Wigmore Hall
Ruth Leon recommendsBritten – The Sorcerer’s Apprentice-Accompanist – Wigmore Hall
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Classical pianist, accompanist, writer and musicologist, Graham Johnson, pays a personal tribute to Benjamin Britten on what would have been his 110th birthday, offering a fascinating overview of the composer’s life and work.
Johnson, who arrived from Africa in London in 1967 as a student of piano and composition at the Royal Academy of Music, barely knew Britten’s work at the time. All that changed over many decades. In this tribute he offers grateful and loving memories of a composer he got to study and later know personally. Johnson has performed, written about, and lived with Britten’s music ever since. The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is 100 minutes of erudite reaction to Britten’ s magnificent body of work.
If you are not already very familiar with Britten’s music you may find some of this hard going but it’s worth persevering.
Agreed. This is a deep and moving account of Benjamin Britten’s and Peter Pears’ life and music as observed by Graham Johnson who spent a lot of time with both of them in the Red House and at other rehearsals and performances. Really worth watching to learn more about Britten’s music, Pears’ artistry and the deep admiration for both from Johnson.