Britten - Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes | Stéphane Denève | New World Symphony (2023)

Artistic Director Stéphane Denève opens NWS’s 36th season with musical postcards from around the world.

In 1945 a major London theater celebrated its reopening after World War II with the debut of Peter Grimes, the first full-length opera by the 31-year-old Benjamin Britten. Fleshing out the story of a misanthropic fisherman whose two apprentices died under mysterious circumstances, Britten and his collaborators framed Peter Grimes as a searing portrait of an outsider who is pigeonholed and persecuted by an intolerant society. The opera’s immediate success catapulted Britten onto the world stage, and it marked the first time since Henry Purcell’s death 250 years earlier that a British composer had made a profound and lasting contribution to the operatic repertoire.

Before Peter Grimes even reached the stage, Britten extracted a set of orchestral excerpts he titled Four Sea Interludes. The first selection, Dawn, separates the opera’s prologue from its first act. Peter Grimes has just been cleared of any wrongdoing in the accidental death of his first apprentice, and the ominous tone hints that there is more trouble to come. The second selection, Sunday Morning, serves to introduce Act II, when the townspeople filter into church, a setting reinforced by the tolling bells. Moonlight prepares Act III, when Grimes has returned from sea—without the new apprentice who embarked with him. The section labeled Storm underscores a raging tempest in Act I.

--© Aaron Grad, 2023.

Originally performed September 16, 2023.

#petergrimes #orchestra #oceanmusic #britten

Subscribe for weekly instructional videos, performances and incredible orchestral content:    / @newworldsymphony  

Visit https://media.nws.edu to sign up for our FREE live streaming platform NWS Inside.

Follow New World Symphony:
Instagram: @nwsymphony
TikTok: New-World-Symphony
Facebook: NewWorldSymphony
X: @nwsymphony
Website: https://nws.edu

Powered by Knight Foundation