Benjamin Britten in London - 27 November, 1930

from Diary of Benjamin Britten, Nov 27 1930, page 57:

Practice Pft afternoon, no Madrigals write letters bet. tea & early din. Go to Philharmonic concert. Ov. Schwanda amusing. Rubenstein in Brahms concerto no. 2. He is really superb. His playing & the heavenly music makes me feel absolutely hopeless. After that the Schubert 7th symphony, disappointing although it's vandal to say so; this symph annoys me with its ceaseless repetitions. Beautiful in parts but 1000 times too long. Orchestra not too good, but L Goossens adorable; the man's a marvel. Back at 10.55. Hendersons out to theatre.
cite as

Benjamin Britten, Diary of Benjamin Britten, Nov 27 1930. In John Evans (ed.), Journeying boy : the diaries of the young Benjamin Britten 1928-1938 (:London), p. 57. https://led.kmi.open.ac.uk/entity/lexp/1396015554694 accessed: 14 October, 2024

location of experience: London

Listeners

Benjamin Britten
Composer
1913-1976

Listening to

hide composers
Concerto No. 2
written by Brahms
performed by Nikolai Rubinstein
Polka and Fugue from Weinberger's fantasy opera, Schwanda the Bagpiper.
written by Jaromír Weinberger
Symphony No. 9
written by Franz Schubert, Beethoven

Experience Information

Date/Time 27 November, 1930
Medium live
Listening Environment in the company of others, indoors, in public

Notes

Britten refers here to the 'Great' C major Symphony of Schubert, D944, finished in 1826 and now numbered as the Ninth, but commonly referred to at this time as the Seventh, before the modern renumbering of the symphonies took into account the incomplete E major Symphony, D729, (sketched in 1821 and chronologically the seventh of the series), and the B minor 'Unfinished' Symphony, D759, dating from 1822.


Originally submitted by Simon Brown on Fri, 28 Mar 2014 14:05:55 +0000