Here’s a fantastic piece of music that I recently had the pleasure to play. Didn’t know this one before and I really fell in love with it.

Made me remember also an amusing thing I heard once in a chamber music lesson, playing some English pieces to a fantastic Czech musician. He admitted he was not the biggest fan of English music, saying it was a bit too bland for his taste… that all those Elgars and Vaughan Williamses lacked some… vital life force? All of them but Britten – his music was full of virility!

This piece would be then an excellent illustration of his idiosyncrasies – these rythms, contrasts, the leaps, the drama – even in such a romantic and moody piece, a Serenade after all!

The piece has also the extra benefit of being composed to some very beautiful texts, you can read them in the description of this video.