BRITTEN: Les Illuminations Op.18, Serenade Op.31 [CD de audio] Peter Schreier, Gunther Opitz, Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester Leipzi

In this centenary year full of celebrations for Britten's contribution to British life and music, as a composer, performer, printer and public representative of serious music who could still reach and touch large numbers of people beyond the usual circle As a fan of new music, one can forget how well his music always traveled, not only to other English-speaking countries, but also in Europa ; much more so than the Edwardians and the consciously English ministers. To the Germans and Italians, Britten was quickly recognized as a vital continuing link in the now almost extinct lyric tradition who could produce new operas on contemporary themes that would capture the public's imagination and exploit all the resources of an opera house; a quality that Britten shares with a very small number of composers, all of whom (Mozart, Wagner, Verdi, Puccini and Richard Strauss) belonged to one or another of their musical cultures. And so these GDR recordings of two early song cycles belong to their own tradition. Schreier may be best known for his unique authority as a Bach interpreter, but he brings the same clarity of thought, diction and intonation to Britten's settings of French and English poetry, and Herbert Kegel was, until his tragic suicide, a director of sympathies. extraordinarily broad and powerful convictions about today's music; These, then, are not recordings nurtured within Britten's native performance tradition, but they possess an authority of their own.