Sign up to our emails and be the first to know about new releases, special offers and more.
Become a Readings Member to make your shopping experience even easier. Sign in or sign up for free!
Hello Readings Member! Go to the member centre to view your orders, change your details, or view your lists, or sign out.
Australian Book Retailer of the Year 2021
Originally withdrawn by the composer following its 1939 premiere, this scintillating fanfare for piano, string quartet and string orchestra which lasts for 10 minutes has rapidly become a repertoire piece…
Available to order, ships in approx 4 weeksAvailable to order
Titles: Nuits de Juin * Sagesse * L'Enfance * Chanson d'Automne
Titles: The Cold Wind Blew * The Spring Came and the Summer Fall * So Helson Smiled and Bunyan Smiled
Score of Phantasy in F Minor for string quintet (two violins, two violas and cello) and lasting 11 minutes. Phantasy in F Minor won the Cobbett Prize for chamber music…
Score of Three Divertimenti and Alla Marcia for string quartet, lasting 12 and 3 minutes respectively. Originally titled Alla quartetto serioso, ‘Go play, boy, play’, Three Divertimenti was written in…
Set of parts for Three Divertimenti and Alla Marcia for string quartet, lasting 12 and 3 minutes respectively. Originally titled Alla quartetto serioso, ‘Go play, boy, play’, Three Divertimenti was…
Composed in 1937 this 5-minute concert study for violin with piano accompaniment begins languidly, before unleashing a torrent of virtuosic figuration for the violin. It was written for the Spanish…
Full score of Quatre Chansons Francaises for soprano and orchestra with settings of Hugo and Verlaine. These astounding songs were written when the composer was only 14 and constitute his…
Full score for the operetta Paul Bunyan, the story of the American folk hero follows the development of the American continent from virgin forest to civilization. It does so in…
Commissioned by the BBC for broadcast at the opening concert of the Third Programme, the work was described in the Radio Times as Festival Overture . The work lasts 8…
Britten's last opera, Death In Venice , is based on the short story by Thomas Mann. It follows the inner turmoil of the ageing novelist Gustav von Aschenbach, who becomes…
The lesser known of Britten’s settings of Psalm 100. Jubilate Deo in E-flat was intended as a companion piece to the Te Deum in C, and is an exuberant, joyful…
Titles: Beware * Epitaph: The Clerk * O That I Ne'er Been Married.
Titles: Andante-allegro molto e con fuoco * Poco adagio * Allegro molto vivace
Written during Britten’s years in the USA (1939-1942) this atmospheric processional languished unperformed in a New York library until its discovery in 1976, the year of the composer’s death. It…
These settings of poems by Gerard Manley Hopkins, the Jesuit poet, were written while Britten was resident in America. The title is a shorthand form of a pious inscription, Ad…
Britten’s last orchestral work, lasting 14 minutes and lovingly and reverently dedicated to Percy Grainger takes as it starting point fragments of tunes from Playford’s The English Dancing Master of…
This musical work Moderato & Nocturne, from composer Benjamin Britten, is put together for the solo piano.
Britten’s Elegy was first performed at The Maltings in Snape, Suffolk, by Nobuko Imai in 1984 as part of the 37th Aldburgh festival. This beautiful piece was originally sketched by…
Britten composed this engaging set of Twelve Variations during his first year at the Royal College of Music, London in 1931, shortly before beginning work on his String Quartet in…
Scored for orchestra and lasting 27 minutes, Suite from ‘Death In Venice’ is less of a suite, and more of an operatic symphony , this continuous orchestral work functions like…
Composed in early 1929 whilst he was studying at Gresham's School, Britten's Rhapsody for string quartet lasts for 7 minutes and received its first public performance in 1985 at the…
Composed in early 1929 whilst he was studying at Gresham’s School, Britten’s Rhapsody for string quartet lasts for 7 minutes and received its first public performance in 1985 at the…
Titles: Poco Allegro Vivace * Poco Andante Grazioso * Poco Presto E Molto Capriccioso
A dramatic work of considerable substance, from which individual movements may be performed separately as anthems or concert works. The work sets a variety of texts from authors as varied…
Full score of Phaedra, which was written as a vehicle for the remarkable talents of Dame Janet Baker. Modelled on the Italian Baroque cantatas of Handel, the series of arias…
Benjamin Britten’s Welcome Ode was his last completed work, written for young people’s chorus and orchestra. It is in five short sections: March, Roundel and Canon for orchestra and choir…
For a 70th birthday tribute to the distinguished Swiss conductor Paul Sacher, Mstislav Rostropovich hit on the idea of inviting twelve of Sacher’s friends to collaborate in writing a set…
Written in March 1936 and lasting 6 minutes in total, the Two Lullabies for two pianos were composed for Benjamin Britten’s BBC audition as a piano duo with Adolph Hallis…
Suite compiled by Paul Hindmarsh from the complete incidental music. First Performance 25.2.90 BBC Radio Broadcast: Northern Sinfonia/Odaline de la Martinez.
**ABRSM selected piece (Singing from2009):
When you’re feeling like expressing your affection (Britten)
Not even summer yet (Britten)
Cradle Song (Britten)
If thou wilt ease thine heart (Britten)
Britten’s Chorale is a setting of a French carol dating probably from the 17th century, entitled Romancero, although more commonly known as Picardy.
Benjamin Britten’s last completed composition, Welcome Ode was originally written for school choir and orchestra. The three movements - Jig, Roundel and Canon, here transcribed for strings, form a Suite…
A work for soprano, contralto and piano lasting 3 minutes set to a text by William Blake - this is the earliest of a number of lullabies and cradle songs…
A perfect example of the young Britten’s masterful vocal writing in a Christmas choral suite destined to become a major repertoire work. Titles: Christ’s Nativity * Sweet was the Song…
Study Score
A committed pacifist born into a renowned military family is met with a torrent of disapproval over his beliefs yet desperate to keep the love of his would-be…
Britten wrote Irish Reel in 1936 as the title music for a documentary film entitled ‘Around the Village Green’. It is a bravura piece, exhibiting all the energy and strong…
Titles: A Riddle (The Earth) * A Laddie’s sang * Nightmare * Black day * Bed-time * Slaughter * A Riddle (The child you were) * The Larky lad *…
Benjamin Britten
Taken from Britten's score to the 1943 radio drama, The Rescue, based on Homer's Odyssey, this melodrama stands alongside his finest music of the period, such as Peter Grimes and…
In childhood Benjamin Britten was not only an accomplished pianist and prolific composer, but also an enthusiastic viola player. This 4-minute work for viola and piano - written in 1930…
Five songs from Harmonia Sacra, for High Voice and Harp or Piano, all realised by Benjamin Britten. Titles: A Hymn on Divine Musick * Lord! I Have Sinned * Hymn…
These Christmas carols have become contemporary classics. The Serene Sweet Was the Song contrasts with a moving lament on the hardships of Christmas, A Wealdon Trio, and a memorable setting…
Benjamin Britten wrote his String Quartet in F in April 1928, shortly after he began lessons with Frank Bridge. He was fourteen at the time and it is thought that…
2013 marks the centenary of Benjamin Britten’s birth and major celebrations are planned across the world, making this the widest ever global celebration of a British composer. Faber Music, which…
Written as a ballet for small orchestra. This work lasts c. 25 minutes and was first performed on 25/1/2004 at the Royal College of Music, London by the Royal College…
Britten’s last opera, Death in Venice, is based on the short story by Thomas Mann. It follows the inner turmoil of the aging novelist Gustav von Aschenbach, who becomes infatuated…
