Benjamin Britten composed Our Hunting Fathers, Op. 8, between May and July 1936, on a commission from the Norfolk and Norwich Triennial Music Festival. The text, describing a "symphonic cycle for...

Benjamin Britten composed his Two Portraits for string orchestra in 1930, at the age of sixteen, during the summer between leaving Gresham's School and beginning his studies at the Royal College of...

Benjamin Britten’s Passacaglia, Op. 33b, is an orchestral interlude drawn from Act II of his opera Peter Grimes, Op. 33. Britten extracted it as an independent concert work shortly after the opera’s...

Benjamin Britten’s Piano Concerto, Op. 13, was composed in 1938 and revised in 1945, as presented here. Britten wrote the concerto for himself to play at a Promenade Concert in 1938. The original...

Benjamin Britten’s Nocturne, Op. 60, was composed in August–September 1958 for tenor voice, seven obbligato instruments, and string orchestra. It lasts about 25 minutes, and its first performance was...

Benjamin Britten’s Scottish Ballad, Op. 26, is a concertante work for two pianos and orchestra composed in 1941. Britten wrote it for the piano-duet team Ethel Bartlett and Rae Robertson, and the...

Benjamin Britten’s Prelude and Fugue, Op. 29, was composed in 1943 for 18-part string orchestra, and it was written to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the Boyd Neel Orchestra. It lasts about...

Benjamin Britten’s Four Sea Interludes, Op. 33a, is a concert suite extracted from his opera Peter Grimes, first performed in 1945. Britten selected four orchestral interludes from the opera and...

Benjamin Britten composed Soirées musicales, Op. 9, in 1935–36, drawing on melodies by Gioachino Rossini, particularly from Rossini’s vocal collection Soirées musicales of the 1830s. The suite grew...

Benjamin Britten’s Spring Symphony, Op. 44, was composed in 1948–49 on commission from the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Britten described it as “a symphony not only dealing with the Spring itself but...

Benjamin Britten’s Sinfonia da Requiem, Op. 20, was composed in 1939–40 to a commission from the Japanese government for the 2,600th anniversary of the imperial line; the

The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, Op. 34 (subtitle Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell) was written by Benjamin Britten in 1945 for a British Ministry of Education film, Instruments...

Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem, Op. 66 (composed 1961–62), is a large-scale choral-orchestral work written for the consecration of the new Coventry Cathedral and intended as a musical act of...

Benjamin Britten’s Symphony for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 68, was composed in 1963 and dedicated to Mstislav Rostropovich, who gave the premiere with Britten conducting the Moscow Philharmonic on 12...

Benjamin Britten’s Simple Symphony, Op. 4, was written in 1933–34 and is wholly derived from themes he composed as a child; it is scored for string orchestra (also playable as a string quartet) and...

Benjamin Britten’s Violin Concerto Op.15, was composed in 1938–39 and premiered in New York in March 1940 with Antonio Brosa as soloist and Sir John Barbirolli conducting. the concerto balances...