At Home With: Britten and Pears
Green Pebble April/May 2010 issue

Visit Britten-Pears Foundation or telephone 01728 451700. Please note that entering the post code (IP15 5PZ) into your satnav will misdirect you, so please download driving instructions from the website.

To learn more about The Sudbourne Park Printmakers group, visit The Sudbourne Park Printmakers

For the past 10 years visitors to the coastal town of Aldeburgh in Suffolk have been welcomed into The Red House, the home of the late composer Benjamin Britten and his partner, the late tenor Peter Pears. There, walking through the large but modest farmhouse, music lovers experience the home much as it was during Britten and Pears’ lives, gaining a first-hand appreciation of the home in which a large proportion of Britten’s music, including most famously the War Requiem, was written.

What these visitors will not have failed to notice is the art collection on display in every room. Britten and Pears collected some 2000 pieces in their 39 years together, ranging from dozens of paintings by their friend Mary Potter, to works by Georg Ehrlich, Edward Lear, John Constable, John Piper, Henry Lamb and Sydney Nolan.

Eclectic on the one hand, yet on the other unified by Peter Pears’ tastes in particular, these works are, according to Britten-Pears Foundation Promotions Manager Kevin Gosling, more than a collection of often significant works: behind each piece lies an intimate story reflecting the wide circle of musicians and artists who visited the home through the years, either as friends or to work with the couple on collaborative projects and performances. Some of the artworks were inspired by the amicable atmosphere in the house; others by Britten’s music; and many by the personalities of the men themselves.

For Sudbourne Park Printmakers, this intimate, authentic atmosphere has been key to their next exhibition: Impressions: New Prints Inspired by The Red House.

The group of 20 local printmakers were invited at the end of 2009 to use Britten and Pears’ home as a source of inspiration for an exhibition of lithographs, etchings and woodcuts to celebrate Peter Pears’ centenary this summer....

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At Home With: Britten and Pears Green Pebble April/May 2010 issue

At Home With: Britten and Pears
Green Pebble April/May 2010 issue