Adagio for piano "in memoriam Benjamin Britten" (op. 62a2, 1976)
Instrumentation
Piano
Duration: 6 minutes
Autograph
Title: Adagio f. Strings (piano version op 62,2) - Length: 6 pages - Date: - - Location: Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Munich
Publisher
Schott Music ED 20279 / ISMN: M-001-14971-6
The Adagio in memoriam Benjamin Britten op.62a was composed immediately after receiving the news of the death of the great English composer and was written on 4 December 1976 between 8 pm and 2 1:30 pm. It is a three-part composition that can be performed as a solo or choral work. A gesture from Britten's 'Simple Symphony' concludes the short expressive piece.
Bertold Hummel
At various music festivals I met B. Britten at various music festivals. He was a marvellously sensitive person and colleague. Not only as a composer of important operas of our century and significant works of absolute music, but also as a conductor, chamber musician and song accompanist, B. Britten was an important encounter for me.
Bertold Hummel
Among his scores I found an Adagio for three strings on the death of Benjamin Britten. It is in a tradition with Lutoslawski's Funeral Music on Bartók and a number of other pieces that are very beautiful. It's an adagio with lots of long notes, with many plaintive seconds and sustained chords that drift away, and has something of a reminiscence and sadness about it. It really grabbed me.
Wilfried Hiller (in the programme of the Munich Chamber Orchestra: Subscription Concerts 2002/2003)