Archive Treasures
List of News Articles
Archive Treasures: The Anti-War Art of War Requiem, Sixty Years On
May 2022 marks the sixtieth anniversary of War Requiem, ‘Perhaps the most important work I have yet written’ as Britten described it in his…
Archive Treasures: The Birth of a Music School
In 2022 we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme (previously the Britten-Pears School for Advanced Musical…
Archive Treasures: Sentinels by the Reedbeds
Today’s Archive Treasure lives not at the Red House but some miles away at Snape; rather than being tucked into an archive box, it is…
Archive Treasures: Reynolds Stone, Britten, Pears and their Bookplate
During recent times when catching up on reading has been a viable option for many of us, find out how Britten and Pears’ unique and beautiful…
Archive Treasures: Two Pianos and a Gamelan
The audio-visual collection in the archive of Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears gives us a fascinating overview of the two men’s sound-world, the music…
Archive Treasures: Britten, Budd and the Hammer Horror Composer
It might be difficult to think of a connection between Britten and that great tradition of British cinema, the Hammer Horror film series, however a…
Archive Treasures: A new production for a new concert hall
Britten wrote his opera A Midsummer Night’s Dream to celebrate the reopening of Aldeburgh’s Jubilee Hall in June 1960 following building work. Seven…
Archive Treasures: Presentation, parking and formal address: the mechanics of a peerage
The archive at the Red House spans all aspects of Benjamin Britten’s and Peter Pears’ lives: from high art and high society to the most mundane nuts…
Archive Treasures: Britten and Malcolm Arnold
Sir Malcolm Arnold’s links with Aldeburgh are recorded in the Archive collections and his centenary year is an appropriate occasion to focus on some of…
Archive Treasures: The North Sea flood of 1953 and Britten’s coronation opera
On the night of Saturday 31st January 1953 severe winds and a high tide resulted in a storm surge and catastrophic flooding along the North Sea in the…
Archive Treasures: Travel and travails - musicians on the road in 1950
One of the joys of the Britten Pears archive is the light it sheds on everyday practicalities, the nuts and bolts of Britten and Pears’ life and…
Archive Treasures: Kathleen Ferrier’s musical friendships
Last year our archive received a collection of memorabilia relating to contralto Kathleen Ferrier, including some fascinating items which illustrate…