Britten: Rattle Conducts Britten. Sir Simon Rattle, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. EMI CZS 5 73983 2 (2-disc set).(Review)

Britten: Rattle Conducts Britten. Sir Simon Rattle, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. EMI CZS 5 73983 2 (2-disc set).

When many of us think of 20th-century English composer Benjamin Britten, no doubt what first leaps to mind are his "Young People's Guide to the Orchestra," "Spring Symphony," and "War Requiem" or the operas "Peter Grimes," "Billy Budd," and "The Turn of the Screw." To supplement these standard items, this new two-disc set from Sir Simon Rattle and EMI presents a collection of the composer's early work as well as several items from final period. Much of it is lesser-known material, and I cannot admit to liking a lot of it, but it is certainly a worthy adjunct to the more-famous pieces, and it is splendidly recorded.

The program is arranged on the discs to accommodate a comfortable concert level rather than offering the music in any chronological order. It begins with "An American Overture," which was never performed in Britten's lifetime and only surfaced shortly after his death in 1976. Rattle premiered it with the CBSO in 1983. Next is "Ballad of Heroes," a solemn cantata for voice, chorus, and orchestra written in 1939, commemorating the British heroes who fell in the Spanish Civil War. The "Diversions for piano and orchestra" is a more conventional set of variations, although typically stark. "Praise We Great Men" is another late work, incomplete at the composer's death, never played until 1985. It is based on a poem by Edith Sitwell. Concluding Disc One is probably the most familiar music of this round, the "Suite on English Folk Tunes: `A time there was ...'" from 1974. Although Britten used some melodies from Percy Grainger and dedicated it to the earlier champion ...