Benjamin Britten's first radio play was The Company of Heaven (BLOG), which used the topic of Angels to inform choices regarding scripture, poetry, and prose, both for music and narration.
In The World of the Spirit, Britten's follow-up radio program, the topic is a little more esoteric - Spirit. Whereas everyone has an image of Angels and their deeds, the subject of The Spirit is harder to picture. Sure, The Bible uses flaming tongues and descending doves to give Spirit a corporeal form, but thinking about what is within each of us is a very personal, spiritual viewpoint.
From a musical standpoint, I like The World of the Spirit a lot, particularly the lush sound provided by the BBC Philharmonic. Britten is in populous mode here, so very little is tough, or even curious sounding. Beautiful is more like it, and compared to The Company of Heaven, there is simply more music altogether, despite a shorter overall runtime. In that other work, the narration was plentiful enough to make the work sag; not so here, where the narration is spread out much better, again featuring Biblical sources as well as timely, heartfelt contemporaneous stories. Plus, the narrators are recorded appreciably closer than Brunelle's performance on Virgin.
King Arthur was music prepared for radio broadcast as well, but here it is molded into an orchestral-only Suite. Britten composes such a wide variety of music here - from the opening fanfares and hectic dances, to the Middle East exoticisms in the Holy Grail music, and the lyrical strains for the Lady of the Lake and Galahad, there is a lot to enjoy.
I originally heard Britten's An American Overture from Simon Rattle on EMI. The work is a fun romp bustling with fun rhythms and odd colors. I remember it being crunchier sounding than what I revisited here, but time has a way of shedding light on Britten's works, at least for this listener.
I had a really great time with this recording. The 35-minutes of orchestral-only music is all engaging, and the 40+ minute World of the Spirit is well-structured incidental music, even if the subject doesn't strike home as well as Britten's survey of Angels. Best of all, the liner notes on Chandos break down nearly every track for a wealth of background information.
Works
The World of the Spirit (42.09)
An American Overture (10.34)
King Arthur: Suite (25.34)
Soloists
Susan Chilcott, soprano
Pamela Helen Stephen, mezzo
Martyn Hill, tenor
Stephen Varcoe, tenor
Hannah Gordon, narrator
Cormac Rigby, narrator
Performers
Britten Singers
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
Richard Hickox, conductor
Label: Chandos
Year: 1995
Total Timing: 78.34
After a middling feeling hearing Britten's A Company of Heaven (the music is great, though), The World of the Spirit offers a lot of quality music amidst the narrations.
Plus, there is much more orchestral music as extras here, including the rare King Arthur.
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