Among the newest entries in this invaluable series of BBC recordings featuring Benjamin Britten as performer, this mixed concert is long on programming interest but uneven in performance quality. No one will question the performances’ historical worth: Britten conducting his new overture for the opening of the new concert hall at Snape; Britten conducting two personally significant works by Frank Bridge, his teacher and most important early musical influence; and Imogen Holst conducting a rarely heard work by her father. The live performances, from Aldeburgh Festival concerts from 1961-1971, are charged with the energy of audience and performers in a relatively close and acoustically favorable environment; but the chorus famously enters a semitone too high in the overture, and Britten’s directing of Egdon Heath is uncharacteristically stiff. The Bridge pieces, however, are outstanding, and it’s a treat to hear Britten’s overture played with such brash, opulent vivacity. [4/7/2002]
