Tamara and I went to Covent Garden to see three pieces, one of which was “Against the Tide” – a ballet choreographed this year by Cathy Marston, set to Benjamin Britten’s 1938-39 Violin Concerto. As I was listening to the music it kept reminding me of Samuel Barber, so I looked up whether one influenced the other because the similarities cannot have been accidental, there were too many of them.
It turned out that they were born and died within a year or three of each other, knew each other through music but did not have a close friendship.
Until I heard this piece I never really liked Britten’s music, so now I like it more, and that is partly because I like Barber – and so the psychological fact is thatI am not listening to Britten alone when I think of his music. That’s how the mind works.
I could look up who composed what first, maybe I will but then I feel myself resisting that because I have an idea in my head and if the chronology demands that I adjust that, then I will have to reconfigure my thoughts, and that is an effort I can do without for now. That’s also how the mind works.
I remember reading that Barber was very hurt after the poor reception of two of his later works and it put him off composing.
It’s strange when you think that the unpopularity of those later works contrasts with his Adagio for Strings, that is so very well known and loved even among people who couldn’t put a name to it.