Benjamin Britten

Benjamin Britten was born in Lowestoft, Suffolk, in November 1913, the son of a dental surgeon and an amateur singer, and trained at the Royal College of Music as a composer. His conducting career grew directly out of his work as a composer-pianist — initially conducting his own works and those of his close circle, particularly at the Aldeburgh Festival, which he co-founded with Peter Pears and Eric Crozier in 1948.

His conducting was distinctively that of a composer-interpreter rather than a career conductor. He conducted his own works in studio and concert performance across the major British orchestras and at Aldeburgh, leaving recordings of the operas and the *War Requiem* that have remained reference performances. Beyond his own music, his conducted repertoire concentrated on the Baroque (particularly the Bach Passions and the *Brandenburg Concertos*), Purcell, Mozart, Schubert and Schumann, with occasional excursions into Elgar and Frank Bridge. The English Chamber Orchestra, which he led extensively from the early 1960s, became the principal vehicle for this work.

Britten was made a Companion of Honour in 1953, awarded the Order of Merit in 1965, and created a life peer in 1976 — the first composer to be ennobled. He died in Aldeburgh in December 1976. Music Preserved’s archive includes a substantial range of his work as conductor, particularly of his own music and of the English Chamber Orchestra repertoire.