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Collection Description
Collection name Britten-Pears Library: Concert Programmes (1900-)
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Description An extensive collection of programmes for concerts given in the United Kingdom and abroad from circa 1900 to the present date, arranged as 69 boxes and including programmes for the following:

1) Performances of works by Benjamin Britten, including most first performances.

2) Concert and stage performances involving Benjamin Britten and/or Peter Pears.

3) Performances involving associates of Britten and Pears, such as Joan Cross and Nancy Evans.

4) Birthday, memorial and anniversary concerts/events celebrating the lives of Britten, Pears and their associates.

5) Concerts celebrating other events, such as the opening of a concert hall or the anniversary of a music college or orchestra.

6) Concert or stage performances attended by Britten and/or Pears.

7) Festival programme books, including those for the Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts, the Norfolk and Norwich Festival, King's Lynn Festival and the Edinburgh International Festival.

8) Opera performances, including those at Sadler's Wells Opera, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and Glyndebourne Opera.

9) BBC Third Programme and Henry Wood Promenade Concerts.

10) Theatre performances (mostly London).

11) Other concerts and events of interest, including performances of works dedicated to Britten.

The programmes are currently being catalogued at the Britten-Pears Library as part of a two-year project funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund:

http://www.brittenpears.org/about/library/projects/hlf/index.html

There are indexes to the programmes of performances involving Britten and/or Pears, and of pre-1951 performances of Britten works by other artists. For performances of Britten works, there are card indexes by work, place and date. For performances by Britten and/or Pears of works by composers other than Britten, there are card indexes by composer and work, and by place.

The programmes for performances involving Britten and/or Pears and programmes for performances of Britten's works are arranged chronologically.

Programmes that are not already held in the collection for performances by Britten and/or Pears or for performances of Britten works are acquired whenever possible. The collection of programmes for recent performances of Britten works is added to systematically.
Date range 1900 -
Associated People and Organisations Wood, Henry - Sadlers' Wells Opera - Royal Opera House, Covent Garden - Promenade concerts - Pears, Peter - Norfolk and Norwich Festival - King's Lynn festival - Glyndebourne Festival Opera - Evans, Nancy - Edinburgh International Festival - Cross, Joan - Britten, Benjamin - BBC Third Programme - Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts -
Associated Places Glyndebourne Opera House Royal Opera House Parish Church, Aldeburgh Aldeburgh Snape Maltings Concert Hall Snape Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh Blythburgh Church Cinema, Aldeburgh
Associated Times 20th century - early 1900-1930 20th century - late 1971-1999 20th century - mid 1931-1970 21st century
Associated Content First performances
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Further details
Viewing the Collection Mon-Fri, 10.00am - 1.00pm, 2.15-5.15pm Photocopying and photographic services
The Library is open to readers between 10.00am and 1.00pm and 2.00pm and 5.00pm Mondays to Friday.
By appointment only.
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Location details

Britten-Pears Library
Golf Lane Aldeburgh Suffolk IP15 5PY United Kingdom Open Map
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Website http://www.brittenpears.org/?page=research
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Collections Overview The majority of music manuscripts by Benjamin Britten, music manuscripts by other twentieth-century composers, sources for literary works (including Britten's and Pears's writing), a large collection of Britten's and Pears's correspondence, performance scores annotated by Britten or Pears, proofs and early editions of Britten's music, early printed music, books and journals about music, concert ephemera, archives of Aldeburgh Productions including the Aldeburgh Festival and the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme, archives of the English Opera Group, performance scores for Joan Cross, Nancy Evans and Colin Graham, audiovisual materials, photographs.
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For details of other collections held at the same location: See the location record

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