Britten, Benjamin: Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal (1943) 5'

for tenor, horn, and strings (rejected movement from Serenade op.31)

Music Text  
Tennyson (E)

Scoring
tenor, horn and strings

World Premiere
4/3/1987
Friend's House, London
Neil Mackie (tenor) / English Chamber Orchestra / Steuart Bedford


Repertoire Note  
This song was originally intended for inclusion in the famous Serenade but was eventually not used, probably because a second Tennyson setting, ‘The splendour falls’, was preferred. Britten went on to employ the rocking string accompaniment that characterizes this song for the ritornello motif in the Nocturne of 1958. Published posthumously, when performed alongside the Serenade it must be played as a separate item.

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