Editing Benjamin Britten (section)

===Orchestral works===
{{external media|float=right|width=230px|audio1=You may hear Benjamine Britten's "The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra", Op. 34 with Britten conducting the [[London Symphony Orchestra]] in 1967<br/>[https://archive.org/details/lp_young-persons-guide-to-the-orchestra-op-34_benjamin-britten-the-london-symphony-orche/disc1/01.01.+The+Young+Person's+Guide+To+The+Orchestra+(Op.+34).mp3 '''Here on Archive.org''']}}

The Britten scholar [[Donald Mitchell (writer)|Donald Mitchell]] has written, "It is easy, because of the scope, stature, and sheer volume of the operas, and the wealth of vocal music of all kinds, to pay insufficient attention to the many works Britten wrote in other, specifically non-vocal genres."<ref name=dnb/> Maw said of Britten, "He is one of the 20th century's great orchestral composers&nbsp;... His orchestration has an individuality, incisiveness and integration with the musical material only achieved by the greatest composers."<ref name=max/> Among Britten's best-known orchestral works are the ''[[Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge]]'' (1937), the ''[[Sinfonia da Requiem]]'' (1940), the ''Four Sea Interludes'' (1945) and ''The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra'' (1945). The Variations, an affectionate tribute to Britten's teacher, range from comic parodies of Italian operatic clichés and Viennese waltzes to a strutting march, reflecting the rise of militarism in Europe, and a Mahlerian funeral march; the piece ends with an exuberant [[fugue|fugal]] finale.<ref>Richards, Denby (1977). Notes to Chandos CD 8376</ref> The Sinfonia moves from an opening ''Lacrymosa'' filled with fear and lamentation to a fierce [[Dies irae]] and then to a final ''Requiem aeternam'', described by the critic Herbert Glass as "the most uneasy 'eternal rest' possible".<ref>Glass, Herbert. [http://www.laphil.com/philpedia/music/sinfonia-da-requiem-benjamin-britten "Sinfonia da Requiem"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131017175446/http://www.laphil.com/philpedia/music/sinfonia-da-requiem-benjamin-britten |date=17 October 2013}}, Los Angeles Philharmonic, accessed 26 June 2013</ref> Mason considers the Sinfonia a failure: "less entertaining than usual, because its object is not principally to entertain but to express symphonically. It fails because it is neither picturesquely nor formally symphonic."<ref name=mason1/> The ''Sea Interludes'', adapted by Britten from the full score of ''Peter Grimes'', make a concert suite depicting the sea and the Borough in which the opera is set; the character of the music is strongly contrasted between "Dawn", "Sunday Morning", "Moonlight" and "Storm". The commentator Howard Posner observes that there is not a bar in the interludes, no matter how beautiful, that is free of foreboding.<ref>Posner, Howard. [http://www.laphil.com/philpedia/music/four-sea-interludes-benjamin-britten "Four Sea Interludes"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130330004237/http://www.laphil.com/philpedia/music/four-sea-interludes-benjamin-britten |date=30 March 2013}}, Los Angeles Philharmonic, accessed 26 June 2013</ref> ''The Young Person's Guide'', based on a theme by Purcell, showcases the orchestra's individual sections and groups, and gained widespread popularity from the outset.<ref name=headington82/><ref name=Matthews85/> [[Christopher Headington]] calls the work "exuberant and uncomplicated music, scored with clarity and vigour [that] fits well into Britten's ''oeuvre''."<ref name="headington82">{{Harvnb|Headington|1996|p=82}}.</ref> David Matthews calls it "a brilliant educational exercise."<ref name="Matthews85">{{Harvnb|Matthews|2003|p=85}}.</ref>{{Efn|The piece is formally sub-titled "Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Henry Purcell"; Britten greatly disliked the BBC's practice of referring to the work by the grander sub-title in preference to his preferred title.{{Sfn|Carpenter|1992|p=231}}}}

Unlike his English predecessors such as [[Edward Elgar|Elgar]] and Vaughan Williams, and composers from mainland Europe whom he admired, including Mahler and Shostakovich, Britten was not a classical symphonist. His youthful ''jeux d'esprit'' the ''Simple Symphony'' (1934) is in conventional symphonic structure, observing [[sonata form]] and the traditional four-movement pattern, but of his mature works his ''Spring Symphony'' (1949) is more a song cycle than a true symphony,<ref name=grove/> and the concertante [[Cello Symphony (Britten)|Cello Symphony]] (1963) is an attempt to balance the traditional concerto and symphony. During its four movements the Cello Symphony moves from a deeply pessimistic opening to a finale of radiant happiness rare for Britten by this point.{{Sfn|Matthews|2003|pp=128, 183}} The composer considered it "the finest thing I've written."{{Sfn|Powell|2013|p=382}}

The [[Piano Concerto (Britten)|Piano Concerto]] (1938) was at first criticised for being too light-hearted and virtuoso. In 1945 Britten revised it, replacing a skittish third movement with a more sombre [[passacaglia]] that, in Matthews's view, gives the work more depth, and makes the apparent triumph of the finale more ambivalent.{{Sfn|Matthews|2003|pp=46–48}} The [[Violin Concerto (Britten)|Violin Concerto]] (1939), finished in the first weeks of the World War, has virtuoso elements, but they are balanced by lyrical and elegiac passages, "undoubtedly reflecting Britten's growing concern with the escalation of world hostilities."<ref name="vc">[http://www.boosey.com/cr/music/Benjamin-Britten-Violin-Concerto/6425 "Britten, Benjamin: Violin Concerto"], Boosey & Hawkes, accessed 30 June 2013</ref> Neither concerto is among Britten's most popular works, but in the 21st century the Violin Concerto, which is technically difficult, has been performed more frequently than before, both in the concert hall and on record,<ref name=vc/> and has enthusiastic performers and advocates, notably violinist [[Janine Jansen]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Niles |first=Laurie |date=30 March 2010 |title=Janine Jansen on the Britten Violin Concerto |url=https://www.violinist.com/blog/laurie/20103/11103 |access-date=17 September 2020 |website=violinist.com}}</ref>

Britten's incidental music for theatre, film and radio, much of it unpublished, was the subject of an essay by [[William Mann (critic)|William Mann]], published in 1952 in the first detailed critical assessment of Britten's music to that date.{{Sfn|Mann|1952|pp=295–311}} Of these pieces the music for a radio play, ''The Rescue'', by [[Edward Sackville-West, 5th Baron Sackville|Edward Sackville-West]], is praised by the musicologist [[Lewis Foreman]] as "of such stature and individual character as to be worth a regular place alongside [Britten's] other dramatic scores."<ref name="Foreman">Foreman, Lewis. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/945907 Benjamin Britten and 'The Rescue'], ''[[Tempo (journal)|Tempo]]'', September 1988, pp. 28–33 {{Subscription}}.</ref> Mann finds in this score pre-echoes of the second act of ''Billy Budd'',{{Sfn|Mann|1952|p=303}} while Foreman observes that Britten "appears to have made passing allusions to ''The Rescue'' in his final opera, ''Death in Venice''.<ref name= Foreman/>