Britten 100

Benjamin Britten is one hundred, and, as Ian Bostridge argues in the Guardian, "his greatness is only now coming into proper focus." If there are still doubters, let them listen to Lorraine Hunt Lieberson singing Phaedra — written in a few weeks in the summer of 1975, the music so secure in Britten's mind that he made no sketches and wrote in full score. The best epitaph for him remains Michael Tippett's: "I want to say, here and now, that Britten has been for me the most purely musical person I have ever met and I have ever known." It seems absurd to shout greetings to a very private and reserved man who is no longer with us, but, as one who became obsessed by Britten's music in college and has never wavered in my love for it, I will do so all the same: Happy birthday, Baron Britten of Aldeburgh!