Britten: A Poison Tree

During his interview for Plushmusic.tv, British baritone Marcus Farnsworth discussed the finer points of Benjamin Britten’s ‘A Poison Tree’ – the stand-out song in a set which propelled him and his pianist Elizabeth Burgess to the final of the 2009 Wigmore Hall/Kohn Foundation International Song Competition. All of a sudden, something caught his eye. Something that made him blanch. It turned out that Britten himself was scowling back at him from a nearby picture frame.
The walls in every room of Wigmore Hall are lined with photographs. The Hall takes justified pride in its friendliness, and in its care for its musicians. Nobody talks about the claustrophobia that can catch you unawares here. Nobody talks about the ghosts.
Or perhaps it’s just that Marcus and his pianist Elizabeth Burgess had been living so closely to Britten’s settings of William Blake’s Songs and Proverbs. They performed the song cycle twice in the months preceding the competition, and they claim it’s the most intense set they’ve ever performed. ‘Britten really understands English,’ says Marcus. ‘Many composers have a problem with the choppiness of the language. But Britten had an extraordinary understanding of the poetry.’
Marcus and Elizabeth’s engaging recital for the final mixed a Schubert lied about death with settings by French composer Francis Poulenc of bawdy 17th century poems, one of which begs a hostess to pour more wine so that "I’m merry, merry, merry."
Quite right, too – the day after his encounter with Benjamin Britten, Marcus won first prize.

Tags

Wigmore Hall, lieder, Song Competition, Marcus Farnsworth, Elizabeth Burgess, and Britten