Letters from a Life: the Selected Letters of Benjamin Britten, 1913-1976 (Selected Letters of Britten)
(A) richly documented tome. OPERA MAGAZINE It is a wonderfully compiled tome. (...) what makes the book so successful, aside, of course, from Britten's writing to a whole host of friends and collaborators, is the inclusion of copious footnotes, which go into fastidious detail to illuminate each letter (...) The result is a comprehensive and fascinating insight into the composer's final decade; absorbing and revealing. GRAMOPHONEThese profusely annotated and copiously documented volumes have often been seen as the nearest thing there is likely to be to an 'official' biography (...) it is a triumphant vindication of the methods set in train with volume 1, and reflects enormous credit on the skill as well as the stamina of the editorial team. MUSICAL TIMES (T)he importance of both this volume, with extensive indexes, and the entire series of Britten Letters cannot be valued highly enough, and it is essential for any Britten enthusiast to have them in his and her library. Highly recommended. BMS News Britten could be alternately ice cold, stout-hearted, sly, courageously forthright and psychically tormented, but was always brilliantly creative, as these letters reveal. INTERNATIONAL PIANO (T)his is a gripping account of Britten's final years. (...) Reed and Cooke have honoured (Britten's) legacy brilliantly by amassing and annotating this material and giving us the best record of the composer's life. CLASSICAL MUSIC(A) superb edition of Britten's correspondence, now completed with a sixth 800-page volume covering the decade before his death in 1976 (...) the magnificent accompanying annotation and detailed apparatus make them richly revealing. SPECTATOR (M)ost engaging and informative. Led by Britten's musicologist acolyte Donald Mitchell and his successors, the Britten-Pears Foundation has spent the past 20 years combing an extensive legacy of documents. The aim has been to trace Britten's life and activities through his own words, free of the gossip and speculation that surrounded the composer in his lifetime and grew after his death. FINANCIAL TIMES As he (Britten) declines it becomes evident how much he is cherished himself, and by how many. BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE