Born #OTD 100 years ago, Sir Neville Marriner, who made several fine recordings of Britten, is seen here during the 1988 Aldeburgh Festival rehearsing Schnittke's Concerto Grosso No. 3 with the Britten-Pears Orchestra.
Photo: Nigel Luckhurst

An anniversary I just missed: 80 years (and 2 days) ago, Britten and Pears performing at Mitcham County School for Girls, with music by Handel, Purcell, Schubert, Britten's mentor Frank Bridge, and Britten himself. The style of the programme reflects wartime paper-saving.

New open season at The Red House, Aldeburgh and we're a short time away from the first The Britten Pears Archive Stories from the Archive session of 2024. Today's story features Britten, Dr. Beeching, King Lear and a mystery guest...

The Britten Pears Archive recently had the pleasure of helping Swiss Radio & TV with a programme on the Red House, in their French language 'L'Orielle d'Abord' series: you can listen to it as a podcast here rts.ch/audio-podcast/….

Judith and Nick from the The Britten Pears Archive team are at Goldsmiths University of London for the Queer History Fair today - come and have a chat about the research resources we can offer!
Goldsmiths Centre for Queer History

#OTD in 1939 Auden and Isherwood's verse play 'The Ascent of F6' opens: music is provided by the young Benjamin Britten and the scores and sketches are held in the The Britten Pears Archive archive.

This Valentine's Day 💞 discover the love story of Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears.

In our latest blog Dr. Christopher Hilton (Christopher Hilton) explores how art became the language of the couple's publicly unspoken bond.

pallant.org.uk/perspectives-w…

'And I shall love you every moment'
Peter Pears to Benjamin Britten, 1943.

Nice example of how the The Britten Pears Archive collection is wider than you'd expect: just hosted a researcher looking into the building of the Sizewell nuclear power plant. Snape Maltings hosted the Sizewell B enquiry and we have papers relating to that, including this CPRE The countryside charity leaflet.

Still pretty breezy up here but the worst of the storm's blown itself out, and The Red House, Aldeburgh and The Britten Pears Archive are looking good in the winter sunshine.

A little over a century ago, Musical America interviews Frank Bridge on his first visit to the USA. There's a lot here that he would have said to Britten, who entered his orbit about this time: say what you have simply, art is international, etc.
musicalamerica.com/pages/index.cf…

We're delighted to see two of our works on show in 'John Craxton: A Modern Odyssey' at Pallant House Gallery: 'Shepherd and Rocks' and 'Two Dancers'. Do get there to see them if you can!
pallant.org.uk/whats-on/john-…
Images © Pallant House Gallery/Barney Hindle

We are thrilled to have been awarded Accredited status by The National Archives Sector - particularly special today on Britten's 110th birthday

Kathleen Ferrier died on this day 70 years ago. Britten first heard her sing in Handel’s Messiah with Pears at Westminster Abbey in May 1943. He wrote ‘I was impressed immediately by the nobility and beauty of her presence, and by the warmth and deep range of her voice’.

Britten, Reflections on Composition is now available to watch on YouTube and our website: bit.ly/3Q0mXDs

Here is a trailer for the film.

On this day in 1952 Kathleen Ferrier and Gerald Moore gave a recital in Holy Sepulchre London, the National Musicians ' Church, to raise funds for The Musicians' Chapel. Here is the programme from our archive:

In our latest Archive Treasures article you can find out about Blythburgh Church’s lengthy connection with the Aldeburgh Festival, & how it inspired Benjamin Britten, composer, conductor – & artist!

Read here: brittenpearsarts.org/news/archive-t…

Great telling here of the story that we're now able to share with the public: during the late Queen's lifetime her letters in the The Britten Pears Archive archive were closed, but we're now able to show them to the public and get this touching story out there for everyone.

We are pleased to receive for our archive this poster for a song recital by Nettleship – the dedicatee of Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols. She directed The Aldeburgh Festival Choir at the first festivals - the white footbridge at Snape Maltings was given in memory of her.

BBC TV made their film on location in Orford church and the ruined Norman chancel there. Perfect settings for a silhouette treatment of the instrumental procession and a torchlit procession during the opening and closing hymn. Great photos of the filming by John Richardson: