Peter Pears & Benjamin Britten discuss "Die Winterreise" - 1968
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- čas přidán 26. 05. 2011
- Video footage of this great couple who brought so much understanding to everything they approached. Amazing ensemble... amazing love! This brief sampling from Schubert's great cycle "Winterreise", D. 911, includes "Frühlingstraum", "Im Dorfe", and "Der Leiermann". From 1968.
Link to my Peter Pears playlist:
• Peter Pears (1910-1986)
XI. "Frühlingstraum" (Dream of Springtime)
He dreams he is wandering through meadows full of flowers and bird-song in May: he heard the cock's crow and opened his eyes, but it was a raven calling in the cheerless darkness. Who could draw the flowers of ice he can see on the windows? He dreams again, of love, and a maiden's kiss, and the joy and bliss of love, but again the crowing wakes him and he sits up alone. He tries to sleep again: when will the leaves at the window be green - when will she hold him in her arms again?
XVII. "Im Dorfe" (In the Village)
People are asleep in the village and the dogs are barking. They dream of many things and have their rest. Let the dogs drive him away so that he does not rest with them - he is finished with all dreaming.
XXIV. "Der Leiermann" (The Hurdy-Gurdy Man)
At the end of the village he finds the old barefoot hurdy-gurdy man, winding away his tunes, but no one has given him a penny, or listens, and even the dogs growl at him. But he just carries on playing, and the poet thinks he will cast in his lot with him. - Hudba
Peter's voice is absolutely beautiful.
I heard this for the first time in Aldeburgh when I was 16 in Noyes Fludde. I got to know Britten and Pears. I do not speak German and I just thought it was an old man's cycle but it isn't. I wish I had realized this then. They encouraged me to sing Lieder and eventually I did. 'The Organ Grinder' was the last song I sang with my husband and I have added it as a video response. I think Ben would have been proud of me. I was so privileged although I did not appreciate it at the time. I miss him.
Britten would be part of British musical history purely through his being the greatest piano accompanist of all time. And yet there's more and more and more to him - composer, conductor, teacher, mentor. He is the greatest musician from our country since Henry Purcell . And this footage is exquisite. Thank you
I would agree 500% - Britten was unsurpassed as an accompanist. I find such joy in his piano playing. I love his four-hand performances with Richter too. He was also a great conductor. I wouldn't entirely agree about him being the greatest composer - I would rather listen to Michael Tippett than those chamber operas with all those little boys and I find the War Requiem pretensious - but he was certainly one of the greatest musicians from our country.
Matthew Forbes Don't forget PIANIST!!!
Was a genius but on reading about him in his biographies he comes across as extremely unpleasant too unlike Pears who seemed a lovely man.
@@mattbod Yet those who knew the two said it was impossible to know Pears, whereas Britten was straight forward & clear in his personality. I think that as his health began to take its toll, his personality became more difficult. In their 365 Letters to each other, however, both men seem mostly pleasant & so v sweet to each other. And all the youngsters adored Ben. Let’s not forget his circle of fast friends, either, “corpses” or no. I love them both, from interviews, the above mentioned Letters, every bit of film & written matter.
@@keybawd4023 One of the greatest composers of the 20th century (& I like Michael Tippett just fine), period. Unsurpassed, in my opinion, altho’ I also like Gerald Finzi. Love those Britten works you dislike. But there’s taste for you.
This is what love of music looks like. I am moved to tears. You strip all the ballast away. And what you get is a very unique sensation: Absolute musical freedom of thought and at the same time awareness and control. Amazing this.
Thank you for sharing this. I have just recently 'discovered' the voice of Peter Pears. I wasn't aware of their relationship until I came upon a Wikipedia discussion of Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears 'friendship'. Yes! They fit together like gloves. The piano and voice go together as if created by some other source, some other instrument of love. Again, thank you for sharing this.
The most tender, sensual recording of the cycle, I think.
It is. And hearing their observations, appreciation makes it more so.
What an insightful and delightful conversation between this lovely couple and giants of classical music. Thanks for posting this.
I love their relationship! You can clearly tell they truly do love each other...it’s so sweet. They also seem like, in addition to being quite talented, being very down to earth. Oh, if only I was alive to have met them.....
I did, in my home city in concert hall, Ljubljana, Slovenia, about 1959 or 1961.
I met Peter Pears (after Britten’s death)!
Schubert just continues to sound better and better the more I listen to and play his music.Great interview……thanks!
Watch how Britten listens to every note. I'm convinced he didn't hear music like the rest of us. Such was his genius that he heard entire soundscapes where we hear merely notes and harmonies. His inner ear was so finely tuned he could compose entire pieces without even needing to write sketches or 'work-throughs.'. Reminds one of Mozart.
Thanks for this fascinating documentary footage. What a unique gift this pair was to the world of music!
What a marvellous duo and partnership.
This is so fascinating. Britten a genius. No doubt Peter Pears a vocal genius. It is beautiful to watch this: priceless footage. Thank you so much.
What an amazing pianist Britten was.
I enjoyed this relaxed atmosphere. And what a voice!
Pears' voice was admirably suited to Schubert.
Thank you, Schubert, Pears, Britten, and kadoguy. This cycle is still meaningful for the 21st Century.
Thrilling to see & hear this wonderful couple of the second half of the 20th century at work. Their love is astonishing by not having to be said or shown demonstrably. It is visibly an inherent part of all the work they did together. What a document! Many thanks!
Ah Wunderschoen! Such great mini opera in this song cycle. Danke Herr Schubert!
I just love his voice when he is singin and the way he plays the piano. Gorgeous ;-)
This is priceless!
What a great moment! Thanks!
Удивительный союз сердец!Приятная и полезная информация о европейской жизни для других национальных ментальностей
Been in that room at the Red House. You can almost feel their presence still there
How nice would it be if all interpreters were as sensitive, cultivated and intelligent as these two fellows...
Two great musicians - adorable - they speak through the music to us.
Thanks for loading down.
Ah! Benjamin Britten! One of the greatest composers of the 20th Century.As well, as a sort of little extra thrown in,possibly the greatest ' accompanist" of the 20th Century if not all time. Even Gerald Moore conceded this gracefully. He was also .apparently a superb conductor. He was not particularly happy performing because he suffered from severe stage-fright .But his musicianship was of the highest order.Apparently a difficult man, but then, so was Wagner. What a wonderful partnership/Pears and Britten!
TheSmoshmy Yes, but Britten was decidedly not anti-Semitic.
What a great pair of musicians!
Wow! Wonderful! Thank you for sharing!
Thank you for uploading this - I come back to watch it often. What amazing men.
Two great musicians and artists. Happy to have found this video... thanks for sharing!
Wonderful. Thank you for sharing this gorgeous tribute.
Sublime. Thank you for uploading this.
Didactic and beauty video. Thanks
Very beautiful voice
What a great couple these 2 must've been. So lucky to have each other and their musicality. Gems amongst the upstart would be musicians of contemporary music.
We don't need to celebrate their relationship. Let's stick to the love they have for Schubert's music.
This is gold
Wonderful footage, thanks!
I love these two! What a sweet couple they are awwwwww....
Amazing Love!
Emocionante.
¡Que maravilloso llegar a ese grado de comprensión musical!!!
Thank you. Very enjoyable.
What a wonderful piece of video! The singing, the piano, the conversation - what could be more moving and eloquent?
truly artistic...thank you
Exquisito dúo!❤️❤️
You can really see just how much these two love each other. Such a beautiful love story between these two, and very brave to be so public about their relationship for the time
Absolutely beautiful
GREAT!!!
due vecchietti che chiacchierano del più e del meno circa la loro immensa bravura e genialità artistica.
Amazing footage!
Like Kathleen Ferrier, Pears, whether one likes his voice or not & I very much do in his singular repertoire, instrument is immediately recognizable after only a short two or three notes. A great singer of Lied as this document illustrates.
Genius. If only this music and artists like Britten were more widely appreciated there would be a far less violence in the world.
Soooo tender
OMG. They are so adorable.
Why this word?
Very nice rendition
The best tenor in the world is Peter Pear. I love him and Benjamin.
Tenho, há muitos anos, o "Die Winterreise" interpretado por Peter Pears e Benjamin Britten. Acho uma interpretação de ambos de grande qualidade, mas Britten, ao piano, é insuperável, com uma intensa delicadeza e sensibilidade schuberteana singular (conheço muitas outras interpretações e nenhum melhor do que esta).
I wish Britten had accompanied Fischer-Dieskau as well. He chose him to sing the War Requiem.
Which is the original video where this was released back in the day? It would be interesting to find the complete document! Thanks for the upload. Most enlightening!
the 00:20 mark offers a sketch of Mendelssohn as the tenor and Schubert on piano. I've never seen that sketch before. Very cool!
That isn't Mendelssohn. It's Johann Michael Vogl.
Zwei geniale ❤
This is an absolute treasure...
Does somebody know where can I find the rest of this footage?
I've never yet met a Christian who condemns them or other men in the same situation.. And I'm a Catholic. And a great Britten fan.
Sadly, there are many who do. It's their loss. What would the world be without Britten and Pears, or Poulenc, or Tchaikovsky?
richard meredith Same here.
Unfortunately many in the churches do condemn same sex attraction, and worse, commitment. And even more unfortunately I have in my life met many of them. It is with gratitude I see the proportion of accepting people exceed the bigots. ( I am a boomer ! )
@@frogmouth If this 'condemnation' refers to sex, you can be quite sure they were doing it much, if at all at, in this stage in their companionship! They were two intelligent and gifted older gentlemen who loved to be together. The Christian Church should look to itself if it wants to condemn sexually immoral behaviour.
They should not be condemned, but their relationship should not be celebrated.
Until seeing this, I never realized how horrible Schubert's Winter Reise is --- "horrible", not, of course, in the sense that there is anything wrong with it (quite the contrary, it's a sublime masterpiece, as perfect as a musical composition can get) --- but "horrible" in the ruthlessly portrayed decline of existence, the helpless loss of everything. Everyone --- including the two, human treasures filmed here --- must, if dying of old age, as most of us do, go on his or her own, lonely "Winter's Journey".
So interesting, when Pears is talking he is not nasal at all, but when he sings the voice becomes closed nasal and light. Hm... deeply fascinating, why is it so?
Probably trying to “sing in the mask,” at 9:42 you hear what is probably his real voice for a moment. With his passaggio at or below E natural, many believe he was “naturally” a baritone, so singing in the mask and higher larynx would lighten his voice so he could sing tenor. His earliest background in singing was as a choral singer, so you hear that influence in his voice. However I doubt his voice sounded exactly like this. It was a full voice that is reported as carrying clearly in both Billy Budd and Death in Venice at the Metropolitan Opera, the only singer where every word was clear or something- you can’t hear someone’s words if they’re covered by the orchestra. So the real sound likely had more resonance than we hear on recording. That’s my interpretation
Listen to the most famous and also great pianists accompanying "The Leiermann".
It's ncredible but Brendel, Barenboim, Levine and many others drown in the pedal, in the alleged beauty, phrases that here are articulated with totally different punctuality and dryness.
Here is the essence.
Perhaps absolute perfection, at the right time,
it would have been a Dieskau-Britten Decca version.
There is something archetypal about the figure of the Hurdy-Gurdy Man.
I recognize him as an image first encountered in my childhood.
His origin is Eastern Europe.
Why do I think he might be Jewish?
The Fiddler on The Roof.
The Rag Picker.
The Outcast
The Stranger among us who has looked upon things we all shy away from and so, we shy away from him all the while knowing he has something wise and terrible to teach us.
Someone recently said to me that more than being loved, we need to feel that we belong.
I thought about that and it feels right !
Family,
Religion,
Nation,
City
Class
Sexual orientation
Local Sports Team
College
Fraternity
Political party
These are things we belong to.
We support them.
We exalt them.
We defend them.
We oppose those who attack them.
We feel elated when another member of our tribe succeeds.
What does it feel like when we belong to no group?
Who among us does not belong to any group?
The beggar.
The homeless
The elderly living alone.
The black man in a white world.
The mis-shapen
The grotesque.
This is the Hurdy Gurdy man.....the Leiermann The one we fear most because he lives our greatest nightmare.
But when we are dying we feel the ultimate alone-ness.
We are alive but no longer belong to the world of the living.
Perhaps Schubert, who was dying when he wrote this, was making common cause with the Leiermann. Outcasts... together.
" May I come along? Will you play my song ?"
Peter Pears, ein großartiger Stimmtechniker und Musiker---aber, ist diese Stimme für Lieder der "Deutschsprachigen Romantik" wirklich geeignet?
Nichts gegen Pears, aber ich meine nein. Er schien auch Schwierigkeiten mit der Aussprache zu haben.
Their ‘Leierman’ is faster than we hear it today and much less full of often mannered melancholy.
ECCEZIONALI
The correct way .Not like at the Red House library in 2022
This ideal of sustained control and seriousness is the antithesis of modern mass culture. We are surrounded by an idiotic clamour which Schubert probably could not have imagined.
And would not have wanted to imagine, or suffer. Thank you.
Ambos eran homosexuales y Britten solo componia para el desde que lo conocio. Me gustan.
Marlene Radovic No, Britten did accompany Janet Baker as well & probably a couple of others, like James Bowman.
I wonder why Britten never tried to have a concert pianist career, like Rachmaninov or Bartok. He seems to be quite impressive as a pianist.
He was not comfortable with that kind of public self-expression. That’s the reason Death in Venice is such an important work in his canon. It’s also why, after the commission of the Piano Concerto for the Proms, he didn’t write any solo piano music
But yes, he’s an incredible pianist. Gerald Moore once said something like Britten was the greatest accompanist in the world and that was why he never accompanied Pears (“he has the greatest accompanist in the world” or whatever). He could play any chamber music style. I think there are some four hand recordings with Richter, which shows how good he really was
@@williamgoforth3572 But he did! The exquisite Night Piece from 1963 - the test piece for the First Leeds piano Competition. It's a short piece, but top-notch Britten.
2TooCute
Stick to the music. This reminds me of men's reaction to Yuja Wang.
Winterreise unter Engländern? Ja, Schubert ist Weltkulturerbe!
and they loved each other! They were together for 40 plus years. OK Christians throw your vitriol!
RImusclebear1 They were both Christians--Britten at the same time a Friend and baptised into C of E. It is, however, too bad that their own Christianity had not accepted them completely in their own time.
RImusclebear1 37 years, to be exact.
Quite the hot couple. Silver foxes. Good for them.
@@sedgwickweybridge2730 as I understand it, neither were what might be called conventional church-goers, or indeed believers. Britten accepted communion on his deathbed from his friend the Bishop of Norwich because I gather he didn't want to upset him. Britten was, however culturally deeply attached to the C of E. Pacifism was their religion, I guess. He certainly had huge respect for the moral teachings of Christianity, even if, as War Requiem demonstrates, he had little time for organised religion.
We don't judge, but God will judge, and repentance will be possible in the next life. I'm looking forward to meeting them then.
Not a great voice.
Pears was only famous because of his boyfriend. Nothing like descau of real singers
Pears was a great artist regardless of his lifestyle.