Benjamin Britten: Phantasy Quartet (1932) 

Ha, I just sent this message to a friend re this piece! ..if you picture little dog running along the downs atop the cliffs...or various animals scurrying around in a wood, a day in the life of the inhabitants mebbe

Now that you mention it, I completely agree. This piece really does suggest the purity and energy of animals in their habitat in a vivid yet unsentimental way

His violin concerto is excellent, as is "Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge".

I'd be interested to know which was the first piece by Britten you enjoyed, and is like the Phantasy Quartet.

And his 'Simple Symphony' is beautiful and a joy too

@@daigreatcoat44 Sinfonietta is a bit like it, and just as good.

which others do you love?

What is a lol ?

@@daigreatcoat44 I know this was two years ago but lol means: Laugh Out Loud.

+therealomunit Perhaps this is a ridiculously late response, one year later, but I do believe that this is from an audio CD - Britten Britten - Complete Works with Oboe by Gernot Schmalfuss, released in January 2000.

Imagine this... A dull winters afternoon in a house on thre outskirts of Birmingham (UK) about 1960. I was sixteen and all alone and needed a book from the attic. My father was no handiman so that meant carrying a flickering hand torch, and up I went hauling up my 'transistor radio', and tuned into classical music from 'The Third Programme'. Dark up there and a voice announced: 'Lyke Wake Dirge...' which meant nothing to me. Nothing at all. Dark up there. After the opening bars I paused, frozen, and after a time the hairs on my arms came to attention as Peter Pears told me just what would happen if I didn't share my hose and shoon and my life, I believed him too. I never did find the book but I found Benjamin Britten.

I first heard (enough to notice) Britten's music 41 years ago, when I was 33: "Ceremony of Carols," probably his most widely heard piece other then "Simple Symphony" and "Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra"; and "Nocturne." "Nocturne" is still one of my Britten favorites, settings of poems about sleep and dreams--very eerie. And it inspired me to try composing again, as twice before (age 5 [nada] and ages 13-15. This time, having been shown by Britten's music that a 20th-century composer could write vocal music (knew much modern music, but just a few choral works, e.g. Stravinsky's "Symphony of Psalms," Orff's "Carmina Burana"). On this 3rd try I succeeded somewhat, setting several poems to music; now having retired, I have much more time and am doing it more seriously. So you could say that Britten's music (like classical music in general) has played an important role in my life. He joined Bartok on my list of the greatest composers of the 20th century (lately I think maybe Shostakovich belongs there too). Yet, surprisingly, though I have heard of the "Phantasy Quartet," I'd not heard it till now. I like it a lot! It is of course youthful Britten, less complex than later pieces, but that simplicity reinforces its wonderful lyricism.

War Requim. It took me awhile to understand the Cello suites but once I did I was hooked. But my favorite is Julian Bream playing his Nocturnal.

@@LizzyMapp Quelle poésie!

LangdonFilmes Chek the description box! It says the names of the artists.

Stop worrying, we are absolutely fine.

@@davidgrahambrown3793 We ?

@@davidjames9626 Absolutely.

He, gotcha.