Recent years have seen the bringing to light of long-lost works by a storied list of composers, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Beethoven, and Joseph Martin Kraus among them--but surely none had such serendipitous timing as the turning up of Benjamin Britten's Roman Wall Blues.
This year, as every self-confessed classical music fan knows, is the centenary of the English composer's birth.
The cabaret-style song, an early Britten work, has been recorded by the NMC label--a bastion of new music. Mary Carewe is the singer, with Huw Watkins the pianist.
And NMC have made it available as a free download on their website: www.nmcrec.co.uk.
Our rediscovered Britten track 'Roman Wall Blues' has been downloaded 400 times! So, what's the verdict? Rather... https://t.co/DtuL1KudPZ
- NMC Recordings (@nmcrecordings) July 16, 2013
It's a fine recording of a fresh, short and melodic number, without the complexities that mark his later songs.
The song was written for a 1937 radio play by W.H. Auden, Hadrian's Wall. But that tape was lost, and the song along with it--until an elderly chorister from that first performance was revealed to have a score.
That was in 2005, and now, eight years later, the new recording has been made, with a piano part supplied by NMC founder Colin Matthews, who knew and worked with Britten.
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