His wiry gray hair was ominously flat. The quicksilver power had evaporated. The demon tennis-player discovered it exhausting even to carry a racquet. The fanatic who plunged into the ocean 5 occasions a day might not swim.The best accompanist in England had deserted the piano, even for his personal pleasure. Britain’s pre-eminent composer had misplaced confidence in himself. His manuscript paper was just about clean.
Benjamin Britten was a shadow of his former self. In 1973, after finishing his opera Demise in Venice, he had had emergency coronary heart surgical procedure, and suffered a stroke on the working desk. He survived, simply, however got here out of hospital an invalid, usually confined to a wheelchair. With a severely weakened proper hand, composing was bodily arduous. However, worse than that, he had misplaced his psychological stamina. His buddies seemed desperately for somebody to re-charge his musical batteries.
Letters from the Queen
The one that got here to the rescue was Queen Elizabeth II. In a sequence of beforehand undisclosed handwritten letters, now saved on the Britten-Pears Library in Suffolk, she stimulated him to take up his composing pencil as soon as once more, to put in writing considered one of his most charming music cycles. Greater than 20 years earlier, she had publicly commissioned him to put in writing an opera for the Coronation, Gloriana. This time the fee was personal and private – a beneficiant act of royal patronage.
‘Expensive Ben,’ she wrote from Buckingham Palace in January 1975. That in itself is startling. However so are the 2 sides of her robust, elegant handwriting, acquainted to most of us solely from her official ‘Elizabeth R’ signature. Letters are usually despatched on her behalf by a lady-in-waiting, however this was her personal doing. She had a request to make, she stated, not as a queen, however as a daughter. Her mom’s seventy fifth birthday was developing in August, and he or she wished Ben to put in writing some music for her. ‘Please attempt’, she added.
Britten took up her provide instantly. He stated he wasn’t robust sufficient to compose a symphony, and recommended some songs for voice and harp, utilizing poems by Robert Burns, in honour of the Queen Mom’s Scottish blood. Again got here one other letter from the Queen, this time from Sandringham. She was relieved he had shied away from a symphony, and thought the songs proper for her mom, in the event that they had been brief and musically satisfying.
Britten, who had not too long ago managed to put in writing a brief suite for orchestra, set to work with a will. He and the Queen exchanged additional letters, discussing the actual Burns poems he wished to make use of. The Queen confirmed vigorous and detailed enthusiasm for the phrases, which was simply as nicely, since Britten was so fired up with the undertaking that he had already written the music for them. He proposed the title A Birthday Hansel, though the Queen confessed she had by no means heard of the Scottish phrase ‘hansel’, that means a present to carry somebody luck. She added that she and the Duke of Edinburgh had been simply off for a fortnight to Jamaica, Hong Kong and Japan, as in the event that they had been going off on vacation reasonably than attending a Commonwealth Convention and making a State Go to.
Quickly after their return, the Queen wrote once more. The ceremonial publish of Grasp of the Queen’s Music had fallen vacant, and he or she wished to know whether or not Britten was . As soon as extra it was a ‘Expensive Ben’ handwritten letter from Buckingham Palace. Astonishingly, she made clear it was a private matter between the 2 of them, to find whether or not he want to be requested formally. One might need anticipated a non-public secretary to do the sounding out earlier than an official strategy from the Queen. However this was the opposite approach spherical. It was presumably an extra try and encourage the composer. Britten politely declined, on grounds of sick well being, however the birthday songs had been prepared and ready.
The Queen Mom joins the rallying name
Unaware of her daughter’s initiative, the Queen Mom herself was doing her bit to bolster Britten’s self-confidence. As the brand new patron of his Aldeburgh Competition, she arrived to listen to his orchestral suite, which she known as ‘your wonderful new piece’. She additionally went to lunch at his home, which she stated was ‘an actual pleasure… and that scrumptious chilly champagne was excellent after a journey by helicopter’.
When she turned 75 in August, one of many presents she opened was the manuscript of A Birthday Hansel. Just a few days later, on the Citadel of Mey, her distant hideaway on the north coast of Scotland, she despatched Britten a three-page thanks letter on pale blue paper, in her personal lovely hand. ‘Expensive Ben,’ she stated, ‘I don’t assume that I’ve ever had a extra great shock in my life than the second once I set eyes in your Birthday Hansel. I’m completely thrilled and delighted by this wonderful birthday reward, and I do need to thanks with all my coronary heart on your kindness in composing this very particular & thrilling music. The poems are so touching & lovely, and Ruth [her lady-in-waiting, Lady Fermoy, the grandmother of the then Lady Diana Spencer] has simply been taking part in the harp music on our previous upright [piano] right here! I actually don’t assume that something in my life has given me better pleasure than your birthday reward.’
Britten’s swan music
The next January, Britten went to Norfolk to listen to his work sung at Girl Fermoy’s home, by the tenor Peter Pears and the harpist Osian Ellis. The viewers was small: the Queen Mom, her two daughters (the Queen and Princess Margaret), Girl Fermoy and Britten’s nurse, a reminder of how frail the composer nonetheless was. By then, he had accomplished two of his best late items, the cantata Phaedra and the third string quartet. His artistic creativeness was in full move as soon as extra. The Queen’s drugs had labored.
In November that yr, Britten celebrated his final birthday. He was now confined to mattress, slipping out and in of consciousness. Pals got here spherical to drink reasonably forlorn glasses of champagne, and went upstairs one after the other to say goodbye to Britten, who had solely days to stay. One factor was bothering him. The recording of A Birthday Hansel was out, however nobody had despatched copies to the Queen and Queen Mom. He organized for them to be despatched the following day.
The Queen Mom replied by return of publish, clearly conscious that point was of the essence. In phrases of touching sensitivity, she took her personal farewell of ‘expensive Ben’ as she thanked him for the LP. ‘I shall always remember that glad day whenever you & Peter & Osian Ellis came visiting to Norfolk, & we sat in Ruth’s little home listening to the beautiful music. It was a beautiful expertise, and once I play this report, I shall consider that day, and of the nice happiness that you simply gave me – with thanks that are from my coronary heart, Ever yours, Elizabeth R.’
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