{"id":35980,"date":"2023-12-01T15:49:32","date_gmt":"2023-12-01T14:49:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/2028805d-dcf8-4433-9fb6-7016d9d29bf7"},"modified":"2023-12-01T16:39:59","modified_gmt":"2023-12-01T15:39:59","slug":"peter-pears-an-appreciation-of-the-great-tenor","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/rss_feed\/peter-pears-an-appreciation-of-the-great-tenor\/","title":{"rendered":"Peter Pears: an appreciation of the great tenor"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

By Catherine Bott\n <\/p>

Published: Friday, 01 December 2023 at 14:49 PM<\/p>

\n\n

Singer Catherine Bott salutes the English tenor Peter Pears – so closely linked to the life and career of Benjamin Britten, but a master in many other areas of song too<\/strong><\/p>

My parents liked Benjamin Britten<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s music, and I was brought up learning and loving every detail of the refinement and wit that tenor Peter Pears brought to the Folk Songs, the heroism of his St Nicholas, above all the tortured otherworldliness of Peter Grimes<\/a><\/strong><\/em>. <\/p>

Peter Pears and Benjamin Britten<\/a><\/strong> were together for 40 years \u2013 they began the English Opera Group and the Aldeburgh Festival<\/a><\/strong>, and developed an unsurpassable recital partnership. Pears\u2019s sound doesn\u2019t please everyone, but his artistry is indisputable: Britten loved his conveying \u2018every nuance, subtle and never overdone\u2019. <\/p>

<\/p>It was Pears’s voice that inspired Britten to compose opera, and his spirituality and erudition that contributed so much to works like the Holy Sonnets of John Donne. He would have had a career without Britten \u2013 he was a compelling and successful operatic performer long before Peter Grimes \u2013 but without Pears we wouldn\u2019t have some of the finest works ever written for tenor. <\/p>His art wasn\u2019t just about Britten, of course \u2013 Otto Klemperer\u2019s recording of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/johann-sebastian-bach\">Bach<\/a><\/strong>‘s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/articles\/guide-js-bach-st-matthew-passion-best-recordings\">St Matthew Passion<\/a><\/strong>, so unfashionable these days, is dominated (but never overwhelmed) by Pears\u2019s Evangelist. And he loved to sing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/articles\/four-best-john-dowland-recordings\">Dowland<\/a><\/strong>, whose songs, he said, were \u2018coloured with a gentle silvery sadness\u2019 \u2013 a telling image, that.<\/p>We named Peter Pears one of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/artists\/best-british-singers\">greatest British singers of all time<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>Peter Pears in his own words:<\/strong> \u2018Peter Grimes is not the most heroic title-role in all opera. He is no <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/recordings\/mozarts-don-giovanni-best-recordings\">Don Giovanni<\/a><\/strong> or Otello, and the more glamour is applied to his presentation the further you get from what the composer wanted.\u2019<\/p>Greatest recording:<\/strong> Benjamin Britten: Peter Grimes<\/em> Decca 475 7713 (3 discs) <\/em><\/p><ul><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.prestomusic.com\/classical\/products\/8042534--britten-peter-grimes\">Download from Presto Music<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul> <\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Catherine Bott Published: Friday, 01 December 2023 at 14:49 PM Singer Catherine Bott salutes the English tenor Peter Pears – so closely linked to the life and career of Benjamin Britten, but a master in many other areas of song too My parents liked Benjamin Britten\u2019s music, and I was brought up learning and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":35981,"template":"","categories":[1,17],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023\/12\/peter-pears-an-appreciation-of-the-great-tenor.png",1202,934,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023\/12\/peter-pears-an-appreciation-of-the-great-tenor-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023\/12\/peter-pears-an-appreciation-of-the-great-tenor-300x233.png",300,233,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023\/12\/peter-pears-an-appreciation-of-the-great-tenor-768x597.png",768,597,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023\/12\/peter-pears-an-appreciation-of-the-great-tenor-1024x796.png",800,622,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023\/12\/peter-pears-an-appreciation-of-the-great-tenor.png",1202,934,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023\/12\/peter-pears-an-appreciation-of-the-great-tenor.png",1202,934,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Catherine Bott Published: Friday, 01 December 2023 at 14:49 PM Singer Catherine Bott salutes the English tenor Peter Pears – so closely linked to the life and career of Benjamin Britten, but a master in many other areas of song too My parents liked Benjamin Britten\u2019s music, and I was brought up learning and…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/35980"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}