8 The Building of the House
1. BB to Peter Pears, 17 November 1964, LL5, p. 614 • 2. BB to John Newton, 19 January 1965, LL5, pp. 632–3 • 3. PPTD, p. 86 • 4. Ibid., p. 90 • 5. BB to John Newton, 24 January 1965, LL5, pp. 637–8 • 6. PPTD, p. 91 • 7. BB to John Newton, 24 January 1965, LL5, p. 638 • 8. Ibid., 26 January 1965, LL5, p. 640 • 10. Ibid., 19 February 1965, LL5, p. 649 • 11. CHPP, p. 215 • 12. BB to John Newton, 1 March 1965, LL5, p. 651 • 13. Rosamund Strode to Zoltán and Gábor Jeney, 12 May 1965, LL5, p. 656 • 14. The Times, 25 June 1965; Observer, 27 June 1965 • 15. CHPP, p. 216 • 16. BB to Elizabeth Mayer, 29 May 1965, LL5, p. 677 • 17. PPTD, p. 103 • 18. CHPP, p. 218 • 19. PP to Barbara Britten, n.d., LL5, p. 691 • 20. BOM, pp. 281–2 • 21. PPTD, p. 107 • 22. John Bridcut, The Faber Pocket Guide to Britten, p. 436 • 23. PPTD, p. 133 • 24. Ibid., p. 134 • 25. BB and Peter Pears to Mstislav and Galina Rostropovich, n.d., LL5, p. 695 • 26. BB to William Plomer, 27 October 1965, LL5, p. 698 • 27. BB to Elizabeth Mayer, 29 November 1965, LL5, p. 712 • 28. CHPP, p. 222 • 29. Ibid., p. 223 • 30. PEBB, p. 480 • 31. MKBB, p. 235 • 32. PPTD, p. 137 • 33. Ibid., p. 139 • 34. Ibid., p. 160 • 35. BB to Eric Walter White, 6 February 1967 • 36. HCBB, p. 455 • 37. AA2, p. 285 • 38. HCBB, p. 457 • 39. AA1, p. 27 • 40. HCBB, p. 468 • 41. AA1, pp. 26–7 • 42. John Samaurez Smith (ed.), A Spy in the Bookshop, pp. 46–7 • 43. London Magazine, November 1967, p. 68 • 44. PFL, plate 342 • 45. London Magazine, November 1967, p. 69 • 46. BBC Radio 3, 12 June 2011 • 47. BOM, p. 314 • 48. HCBB, p. 477 • 49. Ibid., p. 478 • 50. CHPP, p. 228 • 51. PPTD, p. 146 • 52. BB to William Plomer, 6 January 1967 • 53. DMBB, p. 142 • 54. BB to William Plomer, 29 April 1967 • 55. AA1, p. 263 • 56. BB to Harrison Birtwistle, 3 November 1965, LL5, p. 705 • 57. HCBB, p. 482 • 58. BOM, p. 327 • 59. Aldeburgh Festival Programme Book, 1969, p. 5 • 60. BB to Basil Coleman, 24 April 1967 • 61. BOM, p. 321 • 62. MKBB, p. 230 • 63. JBPG, p. 276 • 64. HCBB, p. 488 • 65. Ibid., p. 490 • 66. Ibid., p. 493 • 67. AA2, p. 259 • 68. BOM, p. 322 • 69. BOM, p. 325 • 70. Aldeburgh Festival Programme Book, 1970, p. 5 • 71. BB to Eric Walter White, 5 November 1954, LL4, p. 300 • 72. The Times, 15 May 1971, Daily Telegraph, 17 May 1971 • 73. BB to William Plomer,? May 1971, HCBB, p. 519 • 74. BB to Walter Hussey, 6 January 1971, HCBB, p. 515 • 75. BOM, pp. 326–7 • 76. JBBC, pp. 276–7 • 77. BB to Joan Magill, 18 September 1969 • 78. JBBC, p. 184 • 79. IHLM, p. 219 • 80. HCBB, p. 524 • 81. BB to Rosamund Strode, 8 July 1971 • 82. HCBB, p. 522
9 As It Is, Plenty
1. Aldeburgh Festival Programme Book, 1976, p. 50 • 2. PPTD, pp. 163–4 • 3. Ibid., p. 165 • 4. CHPP, p. 242 • 5. BB to Frederick Ashton, 20 September 1971, HCBB, pp. 533–4 • 6. Thomas Mann, Death in Venice, in The Penguin Book of International Gay Writing, pp. 146–7. I have preferred David Luke’s translation, which is more accurate and less mannered than H. T. Lowe-Porter’s, even though this remained in print for many years as a Penguin Modern Classic. • 7. Ibid., p. 171 • 8. Ibid., p. 164 • 9. Ibid., p. 165 • 10. Ibid., p. 187 • 11. Ibid., p. 186 • 12. Ibid., p. 155 • 13. Ibid., p. 159 • 14. Ibid., p. 204 • 15. Ibid., p. 198 • 16. LL3, p. 31 • 17. Julie Kavanagh, Secret Muses, pp. 535–6 • 18. Ibid., p. 537 • 19. Guardian, 18 June 1973, HCBB, p. 558 • 20. JBBC, p. 284 • 21. Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse, p. 226 • 22. HCBB. p. 539 • 23. JBBC, pp. 283–4 • 24. HCBB, p. 546 • 25. CHPP, p. 244 • 26. BB to Ray Minshull, 3 April 1973, HCBB, p. 548 • 27. Peter Pears to Anthony Gishford,? May 1973, HCBB, p. 551 • 28. HCBB, p. 561 • 29. Boris Ford (ed.), Benjamin Britten’s Poets, p. 52 • 30. JBPG, p. 348 • 31. PPTD, p. 181 • 32. Ibid., p. 190 • 33. Ibid., p. 198 • 34. BB to Beth Welford, 17 October 1974, HCBB, p. 567 • 35. BB to Peter Pears, 17 November 1974, LL1, p. 60 • 36. Peter Pears to BB, 21 November 1974, LL1, pp. 60–1 • 37. JBPG, pp. 168–9 • 38. Ibid., p. 167 • 39. Ibid., p. 164 • 40. DMBB, p. 153 • 41. HCBB, p. 577 • 42. IHLM, p. 186 • 43. CHPP, p. 273 • 44. HCBB, p. 585 • 45. PFL, plate 435 • 46. Alex Ross, The Rest is Noise, p. 413 • 47. JBPG, p. 373 • 48. Ian Bostridge, A Singer’s Notebook, p. 228 • 49. London Magazine, February/March 1993, p. 131 • 50. Times Literary Supplement, 10 July 2009 • 51. Bernard Levin, Conducted Tour, p. 69 • 52. CHPP, p. 268 • 53. HCBB, p. 590
BIBLIOGRAPHY
There is already an enormous amount of writing about Britten, as the exhaustive bibliographies in each volume of Letters from a Life demonstrate. This brief list contains works I have consulted while writing this book and to which reference is made in the text, where appropriate with the abbreviations by which they are identified in the Notes.
BOOKS ABOUT BRITTEN, PEARS AND ALDEBURGH
Ariane Bankes and Jonathan Reekie (eds), New Aldeburgh Anthology, Boydell, 2009 [AA2]
Paul Banks (ed.), The Making of Peter Grimes: Essays and Studies, Boydell, 1996 [TMPG]
Ronald Blythe (ed.), Aldeburgh Anthology, Snape Maltings Foundation in association with Faber, 1971 [AA1]
John Bridcut, Britten’s Children, Faber, 2006 [JBBC]
John Bridcut, The Faber Pocket Guide to Britten, Faber, 2010 [JBPG]
Beth Britten, My Brother Benjamin, Kensal Press, 1986 [MBB]
Humphrey Carpenter, Benjamin Britten: A Biography, Faber, 1992 [HCBB]
Nick Clark, Kevin Gosling and Lucy Walker, Young Britten: Schoolboy, Composer, Britten–Pears Foundation, 2009
Mervyn Cooke (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Benjamin Britten, Cambridge University Press, 1999
John Evans (ed.), Journeying Boy: The Diaries of the Young Benjamin Britten, 1928–1938, Faber, 2009 [JB]
Peter Evans, The Music of Benjamin Britten, Dent, 1979 [PEBB]
Boris Ford (ed.), Benjamin Britten’s Poets: The Poetry He Set to Music, Carcanet, 1994 [BFBP]
Anthony Gishford (ed.), A Tribute to Benjamin Britten on his Fiftieth Birthday, Faber, 1963
Christopher Grogan, Imogen Holst: A Life in Music, revised edition, Boydell, 2010 [IHLM]
Christopher Headington, Peter Pears: A Biography, Faber, 1992 [CHPP]
David Herbert (ed.), The Operas of Benjamin Britten, Hamish Hamilton, 1979
Michael Kennedy, Britten (The Master Musicians), Dent, 1981 [MKBB]
Paul Kildea (ed.), Britten on Music, Oxford University Press, 2003 [BOM]
David Matthews, Britten, Haus, 2003 [DMB]
Donald Mitchell, Britten and Auden in the Thirties: The Year 1936, Faber, 1981
Donald Mitchell and John Evans, Benjamin Britten: Pictures from a Life, 1913–1976, Faber, 1978 [PFL]
Donald Mitchell and Philip Reed (eds), Letters from a Life: Volume One, 1923–39, Faber, 1991 [LL1]
Donald Mitchell and Philip Reed (eds), Letters from a Life: Volume Two, 1939–45, Faber, 1991 [LL2]
Donald Mitchell, Philip Reed and Mervyn Cooke (eds), Letters from a Life: Volume Three, 1946–51, Faber, 2004 [LL3]
Michael Oliver, Benjamin Britten, Phaidon, 1996 [MOBB]
Philip Reed (ed.), The Travel Diaries of Peter Pears 1936–1978, Boydell, 1995 [PPTD]
Philip Reed, Mervyn Cooke and Donald Mitchell (eds), Letters from a Life: Volume Four, 1952–1957, Boydell, 2008 [LL4]
Philip Reed and Mervyn Cooke (eds), Letters from a Life: Volume Five, 1958–1965, Boydell, 2010 [LL5]
Eric Walter White, Benjamin Britten: His Life and Operas, second edition, Faber, 1983 [EWBB]
OTHER WORKS CITED IN THE TEXT
Peter F. Alexander, William Plomer: A Biography, Oxford University Press, 1989
John Amis, Amiscellany, Faber, 1985
W. H. Auden, Collected Shorter Poems 1927–1957, Faber, 1966
W. H. Auden, The English Auden, edited by Edward Mendelson, Faber, 1977
W. H. Auden, Prose 1926–1938, edited by Edward Mendelson, Faber, 1996
W. H. Auden & Christopher Isherwood, Plays and other Dramatic Writings by W. H. Auden, 1928–1938, edited by Edward Mendelson, Faber, 1989
A. L. Bacharach (ed.), British Mus
ic in Our Time, Pelican, 1946
Ian Bostridge, A Singer’s Notebook, Faber, 2011
Humphrey Carpenter, W. H. Auden: A Biography, Allen & Unwin, 1981
Virginia Spencer Carr, Paul Bowles: A Life, Peter Owen, 2004
John Culshaw, Putting the Record Straight, Secker & Warburg, 1981
Richard Davenport-Hines, Auden, Heinemann, 1995
Michael Davidson, The World, the Flesh and Myself, Arthur Barker, 1962
Dorothy J. Farman, Auden in Love, Faber, 1985
E. H. Fellowes (ed.), English Madrigal Verse 1588–1632, third edition, revised and enlarged by Frederick W. Sternfeld and David Greer, Clarendon Press, 1967
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Echoes of a Lifetime, Macmillan, 1989
E. M. Forster, Aspects of the Novel, Pelican, 1962
E. M. Forster, Two Cheers for Democracy, Penguin, 1965
E. M. Forster, The Prince’s Tale and other uncollected writings, André Deutsch, 1998
P. N. Furbank, E. M. Forster: A Life. Volume Two: Polycrates’ Ring. Secker & Warburg, 1978
Thomas Hardy, The Complete Poems, New Wessex edition, Macmillan, 1976
Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure, New Wessex edition, Macmillan, 1974
Matt Houlbrook, Queer London, University of Chicago Press, 2005
Samuel Hynes, The Auden Generation, Bodley Head, 1976
Christopher Isherwood, Lions and Shadows, Four Square Books, 1963
Christopher Isherwood, Christopher and his Kind, Eyre Methuen, 1977
Christopher Isherwood, Diaries, Volume One: 1939–1960, edited by Katharine Bucknell, Methuen, 1996
Christopher Isherwood, Diaries, Volume Two: 1960–1969, edited by Katharine Bucknell, Chatto & Windus, 2010
Henry James, The Turn of the Screw and The Aspern Papers, Penguin, 1984
John Jolliffe, Glyndebourne: An Operatic Miracle, John Murray, 1999
Julie Kavanagh, Secret Muses: The Life of Frederick Ashton, Faber, 1996
Constant Lambert, Music Ho!, second edition, Faber, 1937
James Lees-Milne, Ancestral Voices, Chatto & Windus, 1975
Bernard Levin, Conducted Tour, Jonathan Cape, 1981
Diana McVeagh, Gerald Finzi: His Life and Music, Boydell, 2005
Herman Melville, Billy Budd, New American Library, 1961
Mark Mitchell (ed.), The Penguin Book of International Gay Writing, Viking, 1995
Wendy Moffat, E. M. Forster: A New Life, Bloomsbury, 2010
Philip Norman, Shout! The True Story of The Beatles, Elm Tree Books, 1981
Charles Osborne, W. H. Auden: The Life of a Poet, Eyre Methuen, 1980
Wilfred Owen, Collected Poems, Chatto & Windus, 1961
Neil Powell, George Crabbe: An English Life, Pimlico, 2004
Alex Ross, The Rest is Noise, Fourth Estate, 2008
Edward Sackville-West & Desmond Shawe-Taylor (eds), The Record Guide, Collins, 1955
Edward Sackville-West & Desmond Shawe-Taylor (eds), The Record Guide Supplement, Collins, 1956
Stanley Sadie (ed.), The Concise Grove Dictionary of Music, Macmillan, 1988
John Saumarez Smith (ed.), A Spy in the Bookshop: Letters between Heywood Hill and John Saumarez Smith 1966–74, Frances Lincoln, 2006
Tony Scotland, Lennox and Freda, Michael Russell, 2010
Stephen Spender, World Within World, Faber, 1951
Stephen Spender, The Temple, Faber, 1988
Stephen Spender (ed.), W. H. Auden: A Tribute, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1974
Richard Taruskin, The Oxford History of Western Music, Volume 5: The Late Twentieth Century, Oxford University Press, 2005
Colm Tóibín, New Ways to Kill Your Mother, Viking, 2012
Galina Vishnevskaya, Galina: A Russian Story, Hodder & Stoughton, 1984
William White, History, Gazetteer and Directory of Suffolk, W. White, 1844
Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse, Penguin, 1992
Rob Young, Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain’s Visionary Music, Faber, 2010