BRITTEN: Violin Concerto / Canadian Carnival / Mont Juic - Bedford, Steuart, English Chamber Orchestra, McAslan, Lorraine

Benjamin Britten’s post-war pre-eminence as an opera composer has tended to overshadow the considerable achievements of his works written during the late 1930s. Two lighter and still relatively little-known orchestral works here frame the Violin Concerto, one of the most substantial and serious of the composer’s instrumental scores, and one of the great concertos of the 20th century. Completed in 1940, this predominately sombre and elegiac work gave artistic expression to Britten’s growing awareness and anxiety at developing world events.