Norfolk And Norwich Festival 2013: Our Hunting Fathers - Britten in Norwich

Bridge Suite: The Sea
Britten Our Hunting Fathers
Britten Sinfonia da Requiem
Britten Four Sea Interludes

This celebration of Britten's centenary is also a tribute to his links with the Festival. Britten heard The Sea, by his teacher, Frank Bridge, at the 1924 Festival, and its four-movement depiction of the shifting moods of the ocean is reflected in Britten's own Sea Interludes, a stirring cornerstone of the repertory.

The song cycle Our Hunting Fathers, a vocal and orchestral tour-de-force, was commissioned for the 1936 Festival, where it was conducted by Britten himself. The work has frequently been adopted by tenors, not least Peter Pears; but here the work will be performed in its original version for soprano, in the very hall in which its world premiere was given. Bridging the two Britten works is Sinfonia da Requiem, the composer's largest purely orchestral work for the concert hall and a powerful reaction to looming war. The programme closes with Britten's best-known orchestral work Four Sea Interludes from his opera Peter Grimes.