I went down to Aldeburgh during the recording of the production.  There was a starry cast – Peter Pears as General Wingrave, Benjamin Luxon as Owen and Janet Baker as Kate.  Britten took the English Chamber Orchestra through the intricacies of the score while the whole assembly – not only singers and orchestra but television cameramen, microphone boom operators, video engineers, property men and scene-shifters – hung on his words.  We watched progress on the countless video monitors that were everywhere and listened to new music sounding for the very first time.  Everyone was well aware that an important new work by a major composer was being hammered out and polished bar by bar.  The tension was such that I found myself holding my breath for much of the time.  In the end, I was quite relieved when the time came to leave.