Benjamin Britten in St Lukes Private Hospital - 17 December, 1930

from Diary of Benjamin Britten, Dec 17 1930, page 58:

Work in morning (Mass - copying out) & evening (Bridge transcription). Walk, with Mummy before lunch. Pictures (Grand) 3.0-5.0 with Beth - Disraeli - Most interesting & awfully good. Go to B.B.C. Symph. Concert at St Luke's Hospital - Dr. Colvin's Wireless. Why they gave this Mass in D to Scherchen - Heaven only knows. Of course there were beautiful bits - Sanctus & Benedictus & Kyrie - but the end of the Credo was incredibly scrambled. Chorus good - seemed to me that all their work was wasted. Soloists - tenor [Parry Jones] - not too bad: - Soprano [May Busby] - dreadful. Orchestra …   more >>
cite as

Benjamin Britten, Diary of Benjamin Britten, Dec 17 1930. In John Evans (ed.), Journeying boy : the diaries of the young Benjamin Britten 1928-1938 (:London), p. 58. https://led.kmi.open.ac.uk/entity/lexp/1396017536499 accessed: 24 April, 2024

location of experience: St Lukes Private Hospital

Listeners

Benjamin Britten
Composer
1913-1976

Listening to

hide composers
Mass in D
written by Beethoven
performed by May Busby, National Chorus, Parry Jones

Experience Information

Date/Time 17 December, 1930
Listening Environment in the company of others, in private, indoors

Notes

Hermann Scherchen's reputation was founded on his performances of new music rather than the central classical repertory.


Originally submitted by Simon Brown on Fri, 28 Mar 2014 14:38:56 +0000