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Archive Treasures: Geoffrey Burgon, Britten, Brideshead, Blake and Pears
What links the composer of the evocative TV theme for Brideshead Revisited to The Red House? The composer Geoffrey Burgon may be best known for…
Archive Treasures: the gift of a concert to Imogen Holst
In July 1942 Imogen Holst received a wonderful letter from a group of friends proposing to organise a concert of her works in London as a thank you…
Archive Treasures: Thirty-seven love – Britten, Pears, sport and recreation at the Red House
Romanticism dies hard: over two hundred years since the movement spread Sturm und Drang over Europe, it still informs our vision of what a creative…
Archive Treasures: A Spiritual Home – Britten, Pears and The Red House
The former homes of famous people are referred to, variously, as house museums or personality houses. They are effectively physical biographies,…
Archive Treasures: Browsing the Bookshelves – Reading Britten and Pears
Close inspection of the bookshelves in The Red House reveals a number of volumes that must have had special resonance for Britten and Pears. These…
Archive Treasures: Love in the accounts
The archive at The Red House spans all aspects of Britten and Pears’ lives together – from their professional activities, the compositions and…
Archive Treasures: East meets West in the Archive
Rostropovich, Menuhin, Richter – asked to compile a list of musicians who worked with Britten and Pears, there are some obvious names. Likewise, asked…
Archive Treasures: Young composers and ancient carols
In August 1918 Gustav Holst gave his 11 year old daughter a volume of Christmas carols which Imogen treasured all her life and now forms part of her…
Archive Treasures: Letters from an American in London
In October 1951 American baritone Theodor (Ted) Uppman arrived in England to begin rehearsing the title role in Britten’s new opera Billy Budd with the…
Archive Treasures: Britten, Grainger and a Birthday Gift
“Lovingly and reverently dedicated to the memory of Percy Grainger” is how Britten worded his dedication to the Suite on English Folk Tunes, op. 90 A…
Archive Treasures: Young Men and Fast Cars
What if…? The Archive at the Red House documents, in remarkable detail, the lives and careers of Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears. Perhaps less…
Archive Treasures: Books for the Young and Young at Heart
Britten explained to his assistant Imogen Holst that the exuberance in the music he wrote for children arose from the fact that he was “still…