Britten Sinfonia

David Butcher, Britten Sinfonia's Chief Executive and Artistic Director talks to Dr Kate Kennedy (Weinrebe Research Fellow in Life-Writing at Wolfson College, Oxford) about Benjamin Britten's Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings. We find out all about the poetry, music and themes, as well as why it's a brilliant introduction to Britten's music.

Kate Kennedy writes for BBC Music Magazine, and gives talks at literary and music festivals around the country, and at venues such as the Wigmore Hall, the Royal Albert Hall and the Southbank Centre, and is a regular guest on BBC Radio 3, on programmes such as Essential Classics, Composer of the Week, Music Matters, and the Proms Plus series. She is the consultant to Radio 3 for their First World War programming, and has appeared on BBC 2 and 4 television.

Music: Benjamin Britten's Serenade for Tenor Horn and Strings, performed by Mark Padmore and Britten Sinfonia. Harmonia Mundi (2012). Available to purchase here. 

You can also listen to Britten Sinfonia and Mark Padmore performing Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings on Spotify here.

Ahead of the London premiere of Luke Styles' new work, On Bunyah, Dr Kate Kennedy interviews the composer at Wigmore Hall.

Dr Kate Kennedy led a pre-concert talk with Caroline Shaw prior to the London premiere of her new piano quartet, Thousandth Orange  co-commissioned by Britten Sinfonia and Wigmore Hall.

Kate Kennedy talks to composer Leo Chadburn (aka Simon Bookish) ahead of the London premiere of his new work, commissioned by Britten Sinfonia and Wigmore Hall.

They discuss Leo's previous work, his alter-ego Simon Bookish and his new piece, Five Loops for the Bathyscaphe.

Kate Kennedy talks to Nik Bärtsch and OPUS2017 winner, Mark Bowler prior to the world premiere of their new works, commissioned by Britten Sinfonia and Wigmore Hall.

Ahead of the first concerts in Britten Sinfonia's Brahms Symphony Cycle in November 2017, conductor Sir Mark Elder talks about how he's approaching the cycle and why he's returning to the chamber orchestra scale that Brahms originally intended.

Kate Kennedy led a pre-concert talk with Brian Elias prior to the world premiere of his new Oboe Quintet, written for Nicholas Daniel and Britten Sinfonia and commissioned by Wigmore Hall which has been released as this podcast. The world premiere of the Oboe Quintet took place on Wednesday 19 April 2017 at Wigmore Hall in London with further performances at St Andrew’s Hall, Norwich on Friday 21 April 2017 and West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge on Tuesday 25 April 2017 as part of Britten Sinfonia’s At Lunch series.

In our latest podcast, Ben Eshmade talks to the key collaborators involved in our Beethoven Symphony Cycle project which begins in May 2017. Conductor Thomas Adès, Britten Sinfonia leader Thomas Gould and composer Gerald Barry discuss Beethoven’s influence on them, how they will approach the symphony cycle and the inspiration behind pairing Beethoven’s symphonies with the music of Gerald Barry.